Although only in its first couple of months, Marvel Rivals has already made it clear that the considerable roster of characters will continue to expand. As new hero shooters go, Rivals started with an unusually impressive roster size of thirty-three, significantly more than the 21 that Overwatch offered at launch. A month later, The Invisible Woman and Mister Fantastic have already expanded the roster by two. Two more are coming forty-five days after Season One’s start, with The Human Torch and The Thing rounding out The Fantastic Four’s inclusion.

NetEase isn’t aiming to keep up this pace with character additions, since adding four heroes every three months would be ludicrous to keep up, but it is aiming to add a character every forty-five days. That equates to two characters a season, and a lot of these characters have already been leaked, showing that NetEase’s plans are more than just words. At this pace, Marvel Rivals won’t be far off fifty characters by 2026, and it seems like it could be aiming for a MOBA-sized roster and model when it comes to how it treats its cast.

Marvel Rivals Is Building A Huge Roster Like League Of Legends

A Massive Roster Could Help Its Longevity

Provided that NetEase maintains this level of support and care for the already impressive Marvel Rivals experience in years to come and can keep up with the pace of character additions it has set, the game could be more like League of Legends rather than Overwatch. Despite consolidating itself as the top dog of the MOBA genre by quite some distance, League of Legends still enjoys constant, if a little erratic, character additions to a roster of 169 Champions. The 170th Champion, Mel Medara, will be joining soon, and the constant support has made League a gaming juggernaut for over fifteen years.

Mel Medara originated from the hit animated series, Arcane, and Riot is making an effort to merge the lore of League of Legends with Arcane‘s.

Marvel Rivals may never reach those numbers, but if it wants to stay on top of the hero shooter genre with competitors like Overwatch 2 and Valve’s Deadlock on the horizon, constantly adding heroes to continually grow the cast might give it an edge. Unlike most other games, Rivals doesn’t have to try to generate interest for its cast, since they come from Marvel Comics, and even the most obscure characters have their own group of fans. There will always be characters Marvel fans want NetEase to add, and this is the game’s advantage over its competitors.

More characters might disrupt balance, but if people like a Marvel character, they will play them even if they are less viable than others. Players won’t require as much convincing to play new characters, and that means there is interest in helping the roster grow to include as many Marvel Characters as possible. Even obscure characters will get some of the limelight with NetEase’s long-term plans, and if the player numbers can be maintained, there won’t be a reason to slow down the pace of adding characters, since Marvel Rivals won’t be running out anytime soon.

Rivals’ Roster Will Be Bigger Than Overwatch 2’s Soon

It Needs To Be Careful Not To Repeat Overwatch’s Mistake

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Overwatch began its life with an iconic cast of twenty-one well-balanced heroes, and the first few additions, particularly Sombra and Ana, were creatively designed. The problems with balance started to snowball when Brigitte was added, completely changing the meta and making DPS characters useless at higher levels of play. This led to the addition of role queue and longer queue times, and these shifts likely influenced a slowly diminishing player base. The frequency of heroes being added slowed down to try to add a PVE campaign that never came, and those that were added tended to be hit-or-miss.

While characters like Hammond and Kiriko have proven to be popular, Blizzard has struggled to generate interest with many new additions, like Baptiste and Venture. With the return of Overwatch Classic and its popularity some months ago, it feels like the bigger roster is actively working against the game, since many new additions just can’t generate any interest. This is a problem that Marvel Rivals doesn’t have because of the Marvel IP it draws from, and the game has proven that it can increase the popularity of obscure characters like Jeff and Luna Snow.

Jeff began life in a Gwenpool comic run, eventually enjoying his own series called It’s Jeff!

Marvel Rivals will easily have a larger roster than Overwatch 2 at the end of its first year, and the only primary concern NetEase should have will be trying to keep the game in a relatively balanced state. Although the balance doesn’t have to be perfect (it isn’t right now, but the game is still fun), as long as it doesn’t make a blunder as large as Brigitte’s addition, people will continue to enjoy the new characters. Despite being a support, everyone in Season One wants to play Susan Storm, and there’s excitement around the leaked characters coming in the future.

A Big Roster Could Be What Marvel Rivals Needs To Stay Ahead

Marvel Rivals Has Some Big Name Competition

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When it was released in 2016, Overwatch didn’t have similar budgeted rivals to try to take its place at the top of the hero shooter genre. Games like Paladins attempted to replicate Overwatch‘s success, but they didn’t have Blizzard’s budget and talent at their disposal. Marvel Rivals has to compete with Overwatch 2, and it seems to be doing quite well here, but it will also have to deal with Valve’s Deadlock when it launches. It has strong competition, but the popularity and depth of the Marvel Universe give it a huge advantage.

With competition coming, Marvel Rivals may have to replicate what League of Legends did with the MOBA genre to maintain the success it has enjoyed thus far. Despite a market crowded with DOTA, Smite, and Blizzard’s own Heroes of the Storm, League has remained on top due to just being the bigger game. Marvel Rivals has the brand and will have the character roster to be a bigger game than the competition, and while Deadlock will likely carve out a strong niche, Rivals should remain on top if it is carefully cared for.

The danger will come with keeping the game balanced enough to stop core mechanics from breaking down. Marvel Rivals needs to learn from Overwatch‘s mistakes in that regard so it doesn’t have its own Brigitte problem. As the roster grows, Marvel Rivals should also learn from League of Legends‘ ability to curate and maintain such a large roster for competitive play. The balance of that game isn’t perfect either, and perfection is an unattainable goal, but people have been playing LoL nonstop for well over a decade despite all the competition that has come and gone.