Marvel Rivals is bringing fans back to Marvel after MCU dropoff
NetEase GamesMarvel Rivals has been a hit so far, attracting thousands if not millions of players every single day. But its success isn’t just befitting NetEase, as it’s also bringing players back to the comics and movies.
We’re only in the first season of Marvel Rivals, but it’s clear that the hero shooter is here to stay. It already has an impressive player count that outshines the competition, and there are plenty of new characters on the way to keep the momentum going.
This comes at a time when most fans would agree that Marvel is in a bit of a slump. Although it remains an absolute juggernaut of popular culture and the movies still dominate the box office, the MCU hasn’t received the same glowing praise in the years since Endgame.
Without the consistency of Phases 1 to 3, many had even checked out of Marvel altogether. But it appears that the launch of Marvel Rivals has sucked fans back in.
Marvel Rivals has players rediscovering their love for Marvel
“IMO Marvel Rivals has made me more excited about the Marvel brand than anything else has in a long time,” said ‘ddsling1197’ in a Reddit post, which sparked plenty of replies from fellow players who had also rediscovered their love for Marvel.
“Completely agree. I fell off Marvel hard but Rivals got me somewhat interested in the characters again,” said one reply, while another added: “This genuinely has made me like Marvel characters more compared to the entirety of the post-Endgame MCU has done in the past 5-6 so years.”
Others claimed that the success of Rivals may have even taken some of the pressure off of Marvel and Disney, as it’s given them some much-needed positivity: “It’s a big win for Marvel for real. The MCU is really struggling right now and Rivals prevented it from totally crash landing.”
It’s not just the movies that have seemingly benefitted, though. There were also many replies mentioning that playing the game has gotten them invested in more obscure characters, which even led them to start reading comic books for the first time.
“Rivals got me invested in my mains. It’s made me buy my first comic ever,” said one player, before another chimed in: “[It] got me reading comics again, specifically the Midnight Mission run for Moon Knight.”
2025 is set to be a stacked year for Marvel, with movies like Captain America 4 and Fantastic Four: First Steps due to be released, as well as the Daredevil: Born Again series and much more. We’ll have to wait and see if the continued interest in Marvel Rivals has any effect on the popularity of these projects.