Marvel Rivals was, from the second it was revealed, in comparison with Overwatch. Taken at face worth, Marvel Rivals is remarkably much like Blizzard’s recreation; whereas Marvel Rivals makes use of Marvel heroes and villains for its playable characters, it’s, like Overwatch, a aggressive multiplayer hero shooter with some remarkably comparable mechanics and gameplay techniques. Each Marvel Heroes and Overwatch 2 are free-to-play, monetized as reside companies, and lean on the addition of recent characters to maintain issues feeling recent.
Marvel Rivals has loved explosive reputation since launching in December, and it’s speculated that this has come at the price of curiosity in Overwatch 2. Blizzard’s recreation, in accordance with the present narrative, is dwindling as NetEase’s Marvel Rivals gobbles up its gamers.
In a latest interview with GamesRadar, Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller mentioned the brand new actuality Blizzard finds itself in, with Marvel Rivals now out within the wild and attracting tens of tens of millions of gamers.
“We’re clearly in a brand new aggressive panorama that I believe, for Overwatch, we have by no means actually been in earlier than, to this extent the place there’s one other recreation that is so much like the one which we have created,” Keller stated.
You’d assume this may be a foul factor for Overwatch, then, however Keller referred to as the scenario “thrilling,” and even stated it was “actually nice” to see Marvel Rivals take concepts established by Overwatch in a “completely different course.”
Nonetheless, Keller admitted Marvel Rivals’ success had pressured a change in angle inside Blizzard in the case of Overwatch 2, saying: “that is now not about enjoying it secure.”
To that finish, Blizzard has introduced radical modifications coming to Overwatch 2 in 2025. Whereas the roadmap forward consists of a lot of what you’d count on to see by way of new content material, the core gameplay itself will see a seismic shift, together with the additions of hero perks and the return of loot bins.
All eyes can be on Overwatch 2 to see if these modifications spark a resurgence in curiosity. We’re now almost 9 years out from the debut of Overwatch in 2016, and two-and-a-half from the launch of Overwatch 2. And whereas Blizzard doesn’t make Overwatch participant numbers public, we are able to see concurrent participant numbers on Steam are as little as they’ve ever been since Overwatch 2 launched on Valve’s platform in 2023, with a 37,046 concurrent participant peak over the past 24 hours.
Marvel Rivals, in the meantime, stays a prime 10 most-played recreation on Steam, with a 310,287 concurrent participant peak over the past 24 hours.
Marvel Rivals Tier Checklist: Finest Heroes
Marvel Rivals Tier Checklist: Finest Heroes
Overwatch 2 nonetheless has a ‘principally unfavourable’ consumer assessment ranking on Steam. Certainly, in August 2023, Overwatch 2 grew to become the worst user-reviewed recreation on Steam ever. A lot of the unfavourable opinions centered on monetization after Blizzard was heavily-criticised for forcing its premium predecessor to replace right into a free-to-play sequel, rendering the unique Overwatch unplayable, again in 2022. Overwatch 2 subsequently endured quite a few controversies together with the cancellation of its long-awaited PvE Hero mode — the one characteristic, gamers stated, that justified the sequel’s existence.
IGN has hundreds extra on Marvel Rivals, together with the developer’s clarification on datamining, and ideas on the potential for a Nintendo Change 2 model.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
