When Marvel Rivals launched on Dec. 6, 2024, over 444,000 players jumped in, ready to blast each other to bits as their favorite heroes and villains. Many thought this would be the Overwatch successor with its six-vs-six gameplay and squad-based combat. Fast forward two months and the game is still going strong, pulling in anywhere from 306,000 to 644,000 players daily—a number even some of the most established shooters would do anything for.
At any given moment, thousands of players are clashing across Marvel Rivals‘ battlegrounds, capturing points, escorting convoys, and throwing each other across the map with Peni’s ult. But now that the honeymoon phase is over, the player base has started to settle into more… let’s say, constructive conversations about where the game is headed. And one thing is very clear: the future of Marvel Rivals looks solid—if NetEase doesn’t fumble it.
The biggest and loudest complaint? Map variety—or the lack of it. Right now, Marvel Rivals has nine maps split across three modes (Convergence, Domination, and Convoy). That sounds decent, but if you’re logging in for a long session, you’ll probably feel like you’re in some weird Groundhog Day-style loop. Even with the Midtown map joining the rotation, players notice how often they get the same locations in back-to-back matches.
As one exasperated player put it: “It’s irritating how I’m constantly getting the same maps back to back in a single session. It just makes the map pool look tiny even with Midtown now being in rotation.”
And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also the color palette problem. Too many maps share the same dark, dim aesthetic, making the game feel visually repetitive. Why is every map stuck in eternal dusk? Why is Tokyo permanently locked into a cyberpunk (but make it more depressing) night setting? One player summed it up perfectly, saying that the devs’ choices have resulted in them: “Needlessly shooting themselves in the foot when just lighting changes would have broken up the monotony A LOT.”
They have a point. Overwatch—Marvel Rivals‘ biggest comparison—has brighter, more varied environments and even launched with 12 maps back in 2016. I want maps that connect to the lore. Overwatch had a story that immediately drew me in, and I spent time finding out what happened to restart the group. With Marvel Rivals, I only occasionally catch snippets of voice lines about why everyone is there together, and the lack of lore makes me want to scream.
Another hot topic is whether NetEase, the game’s developer, will resist the urge to drown the game in microtransactions. Some players are cautiously optimistic, hoping that Disney’s watchful eye will keep NetEase in check. “Disney got burned pretty hard in that Battlefront II fiasco,” one commenter pointed out. Hopefully, they’re still afraid of repeating that mistake.”
That being said, Marvel Rivals does have a fair share of pricey skins, so if NetEase is going to go “full-greed mode,” it hasn’t completely shown its hand yet.
Despite all this, Marvel Rivals is converting non-shooter players into die-hard fans. One player admitted:
“I went from never playing a single hero shooter to having 300 hours in this game.” While another said: “I’m new to the gaming style and can confidently say that Marvel has me hooked. I will be spending my foreseeable future on this game.”
This is huge—grabbing players who wouldn’t normally touch this genre is a big win, proving that Marvel Rivals has something special going for it. With a new character dropping every six weeks, the devs are keeping a steady stream of content coming. That’s a wild timeline, and if they stick to it, the roster will fill up fast. But what the game really needs—besides keeping NetEase on a leash—is more maps that actually feel different.
All in all, Marvel Rivals has a bright future. It’s fun, it’s fast-paced, and it’s drawing in players like crazy. If NetEase plays its cards right and actually listens to player feedback (please), this could genuinely become one of the biggest multiplayer hits of the decade. But for now, we wait—and keep praying we don’t get the same map three times in a row.
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