Doctor Strange

Premise

The story follows a hostile meeting between Victor von Doom / Doctor Doom and his heroic 2099 counterpart, which causes a "timestream entanglement" that leads to new worlds being created and heroes and villains from across the multiverse fighting one another to defeat both Doom variants before one claims victory over the new worlds.

Gameplay

Marvel Rivals is a 6v6 third-person hero shooter title. The game features destructible environments, allowing players to alter the battlefield (which is overseen by Galacta). As of July 2026, there are 23 unique maps active in the game.

Modes

The game has eight modes:

Convoy – Two teams are randomly assigned offense or defense. Offense teams escort a moving object through the map while defence teams must stop the object by capturing it. The object will passively move forward while captured by offence and backwards while captured by defence; only offence may increase the object's speed, by standing near it. Regardless of the team that has captured it, the object will remain stationary if a member of the opposing team is nearby. In competitive mode, team roles will swap once offence has escorted the object to its destination or the timer runs out; if both teams successfully escort the object to its destination as offence, tiebreaker rounds will occur using the leftover offence time of each team. Maps currently include Yggsgard: Yggdrasil Path, Tokyo 2099: Spider-Islands, Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown, Hellfire Gala: Arakko, Museum of Contemplation, and Thebes.

Domination – Two teams attack a zone within an area map; one from a pool of three for each map. When the zone is captured, the defending team will gradually gain points until 100% is reached. This is then repeated on another area map until a team has captured two zones, achieving victory. Maps currently include, Yggsgard: Royal Palace, Hydra Charteris Base: Hell's Heaven, Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda: Birnin T'Challa, Hellfire Gala: Krakoa, and Klyntar: Celestial Husk.

Convergence – Two teams are randomly assigned offense or defense. Offence teams must attack and secure a starting checkpoint while defence teams must prevent the checkpoint from capture until the timer ends. If offence successfully captures the checkpoint, the game shifts into mechanics identical to Convoy. Maps currently include, Tokyo 2099: Shin-Shibuya, Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda: Hall of Djalia, Klyntar: Symbiotic Surface, Empire of Eternal Night: Central Park, K'un-Lun: Heart of Heaven, and Lower Manhattan.

Resource Rumble – Two teams battle over one of three zones on a singular map to collect resources. Once the zone is depleted of resources, another zone will unlock. If a team collects all resources from two zones, they win. If both teams collect enough resources from the first two zones, the third zone will unlock and teams must fight to capture it and steal the other team's resources to win. This mode is currently only available in custom match. Maps currently include, Klyntar: Throne of Knull.

Playable characters

As of August 2026, 53 playable characters have been added to the game.

Guangyun Chen, the game's creative director, has expressed the aim to include both fan favourites and lesser known characters in the roster, saying, "When it comes to designing characters in our game, we usually dive really deep into the background and personality of each Marvel character, so every character's gameplay mechanic and skill is really crafted to reflect who these heroes really are in the comics."

Playable characters are divided into three main roles: Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist. Vanguard heroes function like tanks. Duelist heroes are designed to deal maximum damage and secure kills. Strategist heroes support their teammates through healing, buffs and other utility abilities. Each character's skillset is based on their comic book counterparts and typically features active and passive abilities, as well as a basic primary attack. Furthermore, each character possesses a unique ultimate ability that can only be used after the build-up of an ultimate charge meter, either passively over time or by engaging in combat.

Unique to Rivals is the idea of Team-ups, where a hero gains an additional ability from another hero. Initially at launch, there were a limited number of Team-ups, and required the allied team to have both heroes selected to take advantage of this. With the launch of Season 9 in July 2026, each hero gained at least two different Team-up abilities regardless of what other heroes their allies were playing, selecting this Team-Up from the character select screen. Having the associated hero of a Team-up on the allied team grants an enhanced effect to the ability. For example, The Hulk can either choose either a Captain America Team-up that grants a ground slam ability and a cooldown reduction passive or a Wolverine Team-up that grants a fury state ability and the Unstoppable status effect at low health. If Captain America is on his team, then his ground slam Team-up deals more damage and applies the Vulnerability status to enemies hit. Whereas Wolverine on his team grants Hulk the ability throw Wolverine towards foes in a "Fastball Special" when Hulk's fury state Team-up equipped.

The game does not require players into a "role queue", which would otherwise mandate a specific blend of heroes on a team; Chen said this was "to offer a wider variety of team composition", as well as to allow players to use team-up abilities without restrictions.

Seasonal content

New content is routinely added to Marvel Rivals through seasonal updates. Initially, each season was to last three months long and split into two halves, releasing new content with each half season, including at least one new hero. From season 3 onward, seasons have lasted two months but still split into two halves, effectively introducing a new hero on a monthly basis.

Each season features a purchasable battle pass which includes cosmetic items (such as character skins, emotes, sprays and player banners) that the player can buy by using Chrono Tokens, the in-game currency earned from playing matches and completing daily, weekly, and seasonal challenges. Once the player purchases a battle pass for the season, it will no longer expire. Other cosmetic contents are available for purchase within the in-game story using Lattice, a premium currency that can be obtained through Achievement rewards, events, the Battle Pass, or with real-world currency. Furthermore, Marvel Rivals has offered short term events around holiday or seasonal themes, which may include limited-time modes and themed cosmetics for completing challenges; for example, the first Winter Celebration event (December 2024–January 2025) featured a 4v4 game mode similar to Splatoon where players used Jeff the Land Shark's spit attack to cover the most area on a map with their team's colour.

Development

Marvel Games partnered with NetEase Games to develop a team-based PvP hero shooter game. NetEase Games is mainly responsible for the design and development of gameplay content, while Marvel Games has a supervisory role ensuring the content conforms to the tone of the Marvel brand and intellectual property. NetEase Games' development team for Marvel Rivals, based in Guangzhou, is led by lead producer Weicong Wu and creative director Guangyun Chen.

The game is built on Unreal Engine 5. Marvel Games senior producer Danny Koo characterized Marvel Rivals visually as a blend of Eastern and Western art styles.

Each season is preceded by a planning process for that seasons' content. The developers first plan the theme of the season and then consider the kind of new experiences they want to bring to players for that season, which serves as the basis to evaluate what kind of heroes are more suitable. At the same time, they consider what new gameplay may appear and the corresponding new level maps.

While the development team has experimented with additional gameplay modes, there were no initial plans to introduce a player versus environment game mode, as of February 2025. They later announced the Marvel Zombies PvE mode.

Release and marketing

Marvel Games first announced the game through a trailer released on March 27, 2024. On November 30, 2024, less than a week before the game's release, the launch trailer for the game was released, showcasing 5 new playable heroes that would be added upon launch.

Playtests

Marvel Rivals had a closed alpha test accessible to the public lasting ten days, from May 10–20, 2024. Players could earn permanent rewards transferrable to the game's final release through gameplay. Included rewards were an exclusive alpha tester title and a playable skin for the character Scarlet Witch, both earned through the test's dedicated battle pass. Additional permanent rewards were the "Dawn of Legends" title, gained from placing Top 32 in the game's eponymous alpha tournament, and an in-game spray decoration, gained by playing with/against a game developer during the playtest.

NetEase received backlash during the alpha playtest when streamer Brandon Larned called out the company on social media for including a non-disparagement clause in the contract given to content creators who had access to the alpha test, barring reviews from saying anything negative about the game. Following the controversy, NetEase apologized and stated it would be revising its contract to be more creator-friendly.

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

Release

Marvel Rivals is free-to-play from its initial release. Though the game was set to release for Windows via Steam and Epic Games, NetEase Games had stated that it is exploring potential releases on other platforms. During Sony's State of Play held in May, the game was revealed to also be released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, as well as its upcoming beta playtest. On November 16, 2024, it was confirmed that Marvel Rivals features an option to select between English, Japanese or Mandarin voice overs at a launch date.

Marvel Rivals was released on December 6, 2024. Thaddeus Sasser, a director of NetEase Games' Seattle-based design team, stated there is a switching cost in which players who are invested in one game are less willing to move to other games; he contrasted the success of the Marvel Rivals release with the commercial failure of hero shooter Concord released the same year, attributing the latter's underperformance to it not providing unique value to overcome this consideration.

In February 2025, NetEase laid off their Seattle-based design team including director Sasser. This team reportedly comprised six people. Kotaku reported that "the size and location of the teams that worked on the hero shooter have been hard to pin down, and it's not immediately clear what the extent of the teams impacted were or why". NetEase said in a response to the closure that they "recently made the difficult decision to adjust Marvel Rivals' development team structure for organizational reasons and to optimize development efficiency for the game" with work still ongoing by their Guangzhou-based core development team.

The game was released on the PlayStation 4 on September 12, 2025, alongside the start of the fourth season; the game runs at 30 frames per second (fps) at 1080p on base consoles, with the PlayStation 4 Pro version running at 1440p and 60 fps.

In March 2026, Marvel Games executive producer Danny Koo confirmed that a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Marvel Rivals is currently in development.

Comics

Marvel Rivals Infinity Comic (2024) was initially a six-issue digital limited series by writer Paul Allor and artist Luca Claretti; it was published by Marvel Comics as part of their Infinity Comics program on Marvel Unlimited. The series then returned in 2025 as an ongoing series. A second digital ongoing series, Marvel Rivals: Unleashed Infinity Comic (2025), began in October 21, 2025; this series is also written by Allor.

Sai: Dimensional Rivals (2026) is a five-issue limited series by Peach Momoko along with other creators such as Stan Sakai, Esad Ribić, Natacha Bustos, Mike del Mundo, and Sara Pichelli. Sai was created by Momoko as the Ultimate Universe take on the X-Men character Psylocke; she debuted in the 2021 Demon Days Saga comic series before appearing as a character in Marvel Rivals. In April 2026, Justin Carter of Gizmodo wrote that Marvel Rivals "has had several tie-in comics and reverberated into the main Marvel books—this summer's 'Queen in Black' event focuses on Hela and comes after Rivals' third, symbiote-heavy season".

Other tie-in media

A new game mode inspired by Marvel Rivals was added to the tabletop Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game. Additionally, a Marvel Rivals themed glider for use in Fortnite Battle Royale was made available via playing challenges in Marvel Rivals and linking an Epic Games account to receive it. Furthermore, a skin based on Doctor Doom 2099 was made available for use in Fortnite, with a LEGO style for use in LEGO Fortnite experiences.

Esports

Marvel Rivals has quickly established a competitive esports scene since its launch, with NetEase actively organizing and supporting various tournaments. The game's competitive structure includes both open qualifiers for all players and invitation-only events for professional teams. Balance patches have also been implemented.

Tournaments and other competitive events

Marvel Rivals Championship (MRC): A seasonal in-game event open to all players, including both casual teams and those sponsored by esports organizations.

Marvel Rivals Invitational (MRI): Invite-only tournaments featuring established esports organizations.

Marvel Rivals Ignite 2025: A tournament for teams that clear both the open qualifiers and the regional playoffs. Screen Rant noted that the $3 million prize pool is "one of the largest competitive prize pools seen for the game so far".

Rivals Fight Night: A recurring event which has North American and European brackets.

Marvel Rivals Ignite 2026: The official professional Esports circuit for Marvel Rivals, with a prize pool over $3,000,000 USD.

Reception

Marvel Rivals received "mixed or average" reviews for the PC version and "generally favorable" reviews for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic.

Marvel Rivals has been praised for its monetization model, which does not involve pay-to-win elements (all gameplay elements such as heroes are free) and time limits on purchased battle passes.

Game Rant mentions the introduction of a "vote to surrender" feature in the game's competitive mode sparked debate within the player community. This feature allows teams to end matches early if a majority agrees, but only becomes available once a full round is played. Supporters argued it helps avoid frustrating, unwinnable situations, particularly during connectivity issues or unbalanced matches. Critics, however, feared it might foster a defeatist attitude and disrupt team dynamics, potentially leading to increased negativity and premature match endings. As of the June 26, 2025 patch, the developers made the surrender system more forgiving for teams that encounter a teammate that disconnected; the voting threshold to surrender now adjusts to the number of players remaining on your team, which rendered a positive reception from players.

Financial and player metrics

Marvel Rivals reached 10 million players worldwide within 72 hours of its release on December 6, 2024. The game's player base surpassed 20 million by December 17. During its first month, the game peaked at over 480,000 concurrent players and maintained most of its in-game player count on Steam. GameLook, a Chinese video game industry research outlet, estimated that Marvel Rivals generated approximately US$135 million in revenue across all platforms during this period. On the Newzoo chart, it ranked 6th among the top 20 games by revenue for December in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. Microsoft also reported that Marvel Rivals was among the Xbox games with the highest single-day active user counts throughout the year.

Following the launch of Season 1 in January 2025, Marvel Rivals again reached a peak of 644,269 concurrent players on Steam. It became the 14th highest-ranking game of all time on the platform by this metric. On the Newzoo chart, the game ranked 5th among the top 20 games by revenue for the same month in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. By February 2025, NetEase reported that the game had surpassed 40 million players worldwide. Sony reported that Marvel Rivals was the 3rd most downloaded free-to-play title on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in the United States and Canada, and 6th in Europe, during 2025. Valve reported that the game was also among the 12 best-selling titles on Steam through 2025. At Sony's PlayStation Partner Awards 2025, the game received a Grand Award in recognition of its status as one of "the top five titles developed in the Japan / Asia regions with the highest worldwide sales between October 2024 and September 2025".

In January 2026, Marvel Rivals recorded more than 200,000 concurrent players, following the launch of Season 6. The player count marked an increase from Season 5's launch peak of 160,000 and higher than the lowest point recorded during Season 4, which saw 132,000 concurrent players. As of June 2026, Marvel Rivals has over 50 million players worldwide.

Censorship

After release, discussion proceeded on in-game censorship of controversial terms beyond China's borders. Specifically, censorship of "Winnie the Pooh" caused speculation that the China-based developer NetEase blocked the phrase due to censorship of Winnie-the-Pooh in China. Other phrases restricted in China that are banned in-game include: "1989", "Tiananmen Square", "Free Taiwan", "Free Hong Kong" and terms pertaining to the persecution of Uyghurs in China. The censorship extends beyond content specific to China, also restricting words such as "ISIS", "Hitler", and "Epstein". Attempting to use these banned messages in the in-game chat will result in a message stating, "Text contains inappropriate content."

Accolades

Time named Marvel Rivals as one of "The 10 Best Video Games of 2025".