Marvel Rivals, the beloved free-to-play team-based shooter, has once again shattered its own concurrent player count record with the launch of Season 1 and its fresh wave of content. Dive in to discover what's fueling this excitement!

Marvel Rivals Reaches 600k Peak Players

Season 1 Brings New Content

Marvel Rivals is riding high on success! The game has broken its own concurrent player record with the kickoff of Season 1: Eternal Night Falls.

Launched on January 10th, Season 1: Eternal Night Falls brought an array of exciting updates to Marvel Rivals, including new characters, a brand-new map, gameplay enhancements, and optimizations. Additionally, it introduced a new ranked tier and a new Battle Pass. As the weekend approached, players worldwide eagerly jumped online to explore the new content, resulting in an astonishing peak of 644,269 concurrent players on January 11th. This surpassed the game’s previous record of 480,990 players during its launch week.

The theme of Eternal Night Falls revolves around the vampire lord Dracula and Doctor Doom, who have plunged the city into an endless night and unleashed an army of vampiric creatures to establish Dracula's Empire of Eternal Night. To combat this new threat, the heroes are joined by the Fantastic Four, adding an extra layer of excitement to the season. The rush to experience this thrilling narrative and gameplay is evident in the game's soaring player numbers.

For those interested in the specifics of character skill adjustments and other tweaks, you can find comprehensive patch notes on the official Marvel Rivals website or through the Marvel Rivals Steam community logs.

New Update Removes Mods

While the update brought a wealth of new content, it also removed certain elements—specifically, fan-made mods. The introduction of asset hash checking with the update means the game now scans for inconsistencies in the files running on your PC. This system flags anything not officially verified, including cheats, hacks, and unfortunately, mods, potentially leading to warnings or bans for affected accounts. While this measure helps to curb cheating, it also means players can no longer use custom skins and other mods.

The community's response to this change is mixed. Some players mourn the loss of beloved custom skins like Luna Snow’s Hatsune Miku and Venom’s "hefty" stalk upgrade, while others see it as a necessary step to maintain fairness in a free-to-play game that relies on cosmetic sales and in-app purchases to generate revenue, and to keep the playing field level by eliminating cheaters.