History of Marvel Rivals in Timeline

Marvel Rivals is a free-to-play hero shooter video game developed by NetEase Games with Marvel Games. Launched on December 6, 2024, for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S, it boasts cross-play functionality. The game features a roster of 39 characters from Marvel Comics. By February 2025, Marvel Rivals had reached a player base exceeding 40 million.

1989: Censorship of Inappropriate Content

After release, discussion proceeded on in-game censorship of controversial terms beyond China's borders. Specifically, censorship of "Winnie the Pooh" and "1989" caused speculation that the China-based developer NetEase blocked the phrase due to censorship of Winnie-the-Pooh in China.

March 27, 2024: Game Announcement Trailer

On March 27, 2024, Marvel Games first announced Marvel Rivals through a trailer release.

August 5, 2024: Closed Beta Test End

The closed beta test for Marvel Rivals took place from July 23 and ended on August 5, 2024, for both consoles and PC.

November 16, 2024: Voice Over Options Confirmed

On November 16, 2024, it was confirmed that Marvel Rivals features an option to select between English, Japanese, or Mandarin voice overs at launch.

November 30, 2024: Launch Trailer Release

On November 30, 2024, less than a week before the game's release, the launch trailer for Marvel Rivals was released, showcasing 5 new playable heroes to be added upon launch.

December 6, 2024: Game Release

On December 6, 2024, Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play hero shooter video game developed by NetEase Games in collaboration with Marvel Games, was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. The game features cross-play and an initial roster of 39 characters from Marvel Comics.

PlayStation®5 Digital Edition (slim)

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December 8, 2024: Peak Concurrent Players on Steam

On December 8, 2024, Marvel Rivals peaked at 480,990 concurrent players on Steam.

December 2024: Winter Celebration Event Start

In December 2024, Marvel Rivals launched its first Winter Celebration event, featuring a 4v4 game mode similar to Splatoon, where players played as Jeff the Land Shark to cover the most area on a map using the character's spit attack.

December 2024: Initial Player Count and Revenue

Throughout its first month, the game maintained most of its in-game player count. GameLook, a Chinese games industry research website, estimated a revenue of about $135 million across all platforms in this period. The game was the 6th in the top 20 games by revenue in the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy for December 2024.

2024: Highest Single-Day Active Users

Microsoft revealed Marvel Rivals was one of the games on Xbox with the highest single-day active users in 2024.

January 2025: Top 20 Revenue Ranking

For January 2025, Marvel Rivals was 5th in the top 20 games by revenue in the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.

January 2025: Winter Celebration Event End

The first Winter Celebration event concluded in January 2025. The event featured a 4v4 game mode similar to Splatoon, where all the players play as Jeff the Land Shark to use that character's spit attack to cover the most area on a map.

February 2025: Player Count Milestone

As of February 2025, Marvel Rivals had reached over 40 million players.

February 2025: NetEase Lays off Seattle Design Team

In February 2025, NetEase laid off their Seattle-based design team, including director Sasser, which reportedly comprised six people. NetEase stated they made adjustments to Marvel Rivals' development team structure for organizational reasons.

February 2025: Player Count to date by February 2025

NetEase reported the game had over 40 million players to date by February 2025.

February 2025: No PvE Mode Planned

As of February 2025, while the development team had experimented with additional gameplay modes, there were no current plans to introduce a player versus environment (PvE) game mode in Marvel Rivals.