Marvel Rivals Reaches Player Count Milestone Again Following Rollout of Season 1

Marvel Rivals shatters its concurrent player record, reaching new heights following the launch of Season 1 and its exciting new content. Read on to discover what has players so enthralled!

Marvel Rivals Peaks at 600k Concurrent Players

Season 1: Eternal Night Falls Delivers

Marvel Rivals continues its meteoric rise! The popular free-to-play team-based shooter has broken its own concurrent player record with the arrival of Season 1: Eternal Night Falls. Launched on January 10th, the season introduced a wave of new content, including fresh characters, a captivating new map, significant game improvements and optimizations, a challenging new ranked tier, and an enticing new Battle Pass. The weekend saw players worldwide flocking to the servers, resulting in a staggering 644,269 concurrent players on January 11th. This impressive 640k peak surpasses the game's previous record of 480,990 players set during its launch week.

Eternal Night Falls plunges players into a thrilling narrative centered around Dracula and Doctor Doom, who cast the city into perpetual darkness and unleash a horde of vampiric creatures to build Dracula's Empire of Eternal Night. Facing this formidable threat, heroes gain powerful new allies—the Fantastic Four! With such an exciting season unfolding, the immediate surge in player engagement comes as no surprise.

For a detailed breakdown of individual character skill adjustments and other update changes, consult the official Marvel Rivals website or the Marvel Rivals Steam community for the complete patch notes.

Update Impacts on Mods

While the update showered players with new content, it also brought about a significant change: the removal of fan-made content, or mods. The update introduced asset hash checking, a system that verifies the integrity of game files. This measure effectively detects inconsistencies, targeting cheats, hacks, and unfortunately, custom mods. Accounts using unauthorized modifications may receive warnings or bans. While beneficial for combating cheating, this change has also impacted players who enjoyed using custom skins and modifications.

Community reaction has been mixed. Some mourn the loss of custom creations like Luna Snow's Hatsune Miku skin and Venom's "hefty" stalk upgrade. Others view this as a necessary step for a free-to-play game relying on cosmetic sales and in-app purchases, essential for maintaining fair gameplay and combating cheating.