Marvel Rivals just launched and already has more than 400,000 players

(Image credit: NetEase Games)

NetEase's free-to-play hero shooter, which I will always think of as "Muvvel Ruvvels" after hearing my English co-workers mangle the pronunciation, is having a good launch day. When I started writing this story Marvel Rivals had just past 360,000 concurrent players according to SteamDB, and now it's looking at 400,000 in the rear view mirror.

Though it's been dogged by comparisons to Overwatch, including some from Blizzard's former president Mike Ybarra, Marvel Rivals has clearly found its audience—though even they can't help but make comparisons. Looking at its Steam reviews, currently sitting on Mostly Positive, sentiments like "Better than overwatch" are common. "I hope it doesn't go through the same fate as Overwatch," says Tim120ms, "where the people who make Overwatch porn work harder than the people who make Overwatch".

Part of the appeal, beyond the fact it's got Spider-Man in it, is that it seems slightly more generous than its competitors. For instance, if you pay for the battle pass, you'll be able to earn its rewards even after the season expires. Which isn't much, but is better than what you'll find in a lot of PvP shooters. (Though it's still no Helldivers 2.)

Matches are 6v6 so healthy player numbers are important. You can check out Marvel Rivals for yourself on Steam. It's up to 418,294 players now.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.