Marvel Rivals
Marvel Rivals is a hero shooter video game developed and published by NetEase Games in collaboration with Marvel Games. The game was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on December 6, 2024, with a PlayStation 4 version released on September 12, 2025. The game is free-to-play with a current lineup of 46 characters from Marvel Comics, and features cross-play across all supported platforms.
Three comic book series based on the game have been and will be published by Marvel Comics: Marvel Rivals, Sai: Dimensional Rivals, and Queen in Black.
Premise
The story follows a hostile meeting between 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 also features destructible environments, allowing players to alter the battlefield., there are 19 unique maps active in the game.Modes
The game has seven modes:- Convoy – Teams are randomly assigned offense or defense. As offense, the objective is to escort a cart or moving object through the map by capturing it, while the defenders must stop the objective by eliminating the offense and recapturing it. If the offensive team escorts the convoy to the end of the map within a time limit, they win. When the attackers capture the object, it starts to move forward without the need of the respective team to stand near it, in case of which it travels at a faster speed. After the defender recaptures the vehicle, it starts to move backwards unless any of the attackers stand near its designated area. In competitive mode, once the attacking team has progressed as far as they can, the roles are swapped and the other team tries to better their effort. If both teams clear all checkpoints, the game restarts with the leftover time for both teams being used for another attempt until a victor has been decided. Maps currently include Yggsgard: Yggdrasil Path, Tokyo 2099: Spider-Islands, Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown, Hellfire Gala: Arakko, and Museum of Contemplation.
- Domination – Both teams attack a single point on one of a handful of small maps. Once a point is captured, the defending team will slowly gain points until reaching 100% on which the round ends. The mode will then jump to another small map and repeat the objective. The first team to reach two captured points wins. 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 – Teams will randomly be assigned offense or defense. As offense, the objective is to attack the first checkpoint on the map and secure it by standing inside. As defense, the objective is to defend the checkpoint until the match timer reaches zero. If the offense successfully captures the checkpoint in time, the mode shifts into Convoy style, where the attacking team escorts a cart or moving object through the map in an attempt to reach two further checkpoints. Reaching the final checkpoint is considered victory. Like Convoy, in competitive, both teams attempt to set the best progress and if both reach the final objective, further attempts are made with the remaining time. Maps currently include, Tokyo 2099: Shin-Shibuya, Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda: Hall of Djalia, Klyntar: Symbiotic Surface, Empire of Eternal Night: Central Park, and K'un-Lun: Heart of Heaven.
- Resource Rumble – Both teams battle over one point randomly selected out of three on a single map to collect resources, once resources are depleted, the next point will unlock. If one team collects all resources from both points, they win the game. However, if both teams have collected at least a certain amount of resources, then the third point will unlock and the teams will fight to capture the point and steal the other team's resources. The first team to claim all resources wins. This mode is currently only available in custom match. Maps currently include, Klyntar: Throne of Knull.
- Conquest – Players are divided into two teams. Eliminating any hero will drop points on the ground that the opponent team can pick up. The allies can also pick these up to deny the points from the opposing team. The game ends when one team gets 50 points before the other or when the timer runs out. The team with the most points before it reaches zero is the winner. When the game ends in a tie, the teams are given another chance to score one more point. Maps currently include, Tokyo 2099: Ninomaru.
- Doom Match – A free-for-all deathmatch. Up to 12 players will spawn across the map with only one goal in mind, to have the most Final Hits before the match ends. The game ends when the first player reaches 16 Final Hits, and the top half of players are declared the match's winners. Maps currently include, Empire of Eternal Night: Sanctum Sanctorum.
- 18 vs. 18 Annihilation - Players are divided into two teams without hero repeat restrictions in a large 36 player battle. Teams are rewarded points for each kill with a target score of 120 under a 6-minute time limit. If the timer expires, whichever side with the higher score wins. Maps currently include, Grand Garden.
Players must reach profile level 15 to enter the Competitive mode. In Competitive mode, players are first given a projected rank based on their profile's previous season rank or rank peak at the start of each season and then are put into 10 "placement matches" around their projected rank to determine their starting rank. Players are matched based on one of nine rank divisions of three tiers, with promotion and demotions between ranks based on winning or losing games and partly from their performance from said games. Competitive mode currently features Domination, Convergence, and Convoy with the Competitive rulesets. At Gold rank or higher, players are also able to elect two hero bans per team. Hero bans will make the selected heroes unplayable for both teams for the duration of the match. At the end of each full season, players are rewarded with cosmetic items depending on their final rank in the season.
Players can also partake in Tournament matches after both earning at least Platinum rank and joining a Faction. Tournament matches feature the same modes and rulesets as Competitive, typically in best of three or best of five formats using multiple matches of different game modes. There are three hero bans per team that apply solely to the opposing team, and there are two protect slots that prevent heroes from being banned. Custom Games allow any of the aforementioned modes and rulesets to be used, including Resource Rumble.
The arcade hub features more casual modes. These are Doom Match, Conquest, and Free Fight. Free Fight uses the Quick Match rulesets, but with no restrictions on repeat heroes with Competitive's hero ban system to compensate. The Arcade hub previously contained modes such as Clone Rumble, Giant-Sized Brain Blast, and Conquest. These were removed on the December 18, 2025 Winter update. Counted separately, there is additionally the 18 vs. 18 Annihilation mode. This mode can be played either player vs. player, or player vs. AI.
There have also been several limited time game modes, including Clone Rumble, Giant-Sized Brain Blast, Jeff's Winter Splash Festival, Clash of Dancing Lions, Giant-Sized Hive Mind, and Ultron's Battle Matrix Protocol. Marvel Zombies '' was the game's first PvE mode, with more planned on the way.
Playable characters
, 47 playable characters have been officially announced, with 46 currently playable in-game. Guangyun Chen, the game's creative director, said that they wanted to have a character roster ranging from lesser known characters to fan favourites, saying about the design process that "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, possessing large health pools and mitigating abilities to increase their survivability. Duelist heroes play an offensive role, designed to deal maximum damage and secure kills. Strategist heroes can assist and support their teammates by healing, increasing damage, and other utility abilities. Each character has a set of active and passive skills based on their comic book characters, along with a primary attack. Active skills once used typically have a short cooldown timer before they can be used again. Further, each character has a unique ultimate ability, which requires the player to wait for an ultimate charge meter to build up over time or by engaging in combat.
Unique to Rivals is the idea of Team-ups, where specific characters if paired with others can provide an additional active or passive ability; for example, if Wolverine and the Hulk are selected on the same team, the Hulk is able to throw Wolverine towards foes as a "Fastball Special". The game does not require players into a "role queue", which otherwise would require a specific blend of heroes on a team; Chen said this was "to offer a wider variety of team composition through team-up skills and their own designs", as well as to allow players to use team-up abilities without restrictions.
In an August 2025 interview, Chen said that NetEase was "allowed to introduce original characters" by Marvel, akin to the development of Luna Snow who was first introduced in the Marvel universe via the mobile game Marvel Future Fight.
The list of playable characters in the game currently includes:
| Hero | Released |
| Angela | Season 4 |
| Captain America | Launch |
| Deadpool | Season 6 |
| Doctor Strange | Launch |
| Emma Frost | Season 2 |
| Groot | Launch |
| Hulk | Launch |
| Magneto | Launch |
| Peni Parker | Launch |
| Rogue | Season 5.5 |
| The Thing | Season 1.5 |
| Thor | Launch |
| Venom | Launch |
| Hero | Released |
| Black Panther | Launch |
| Black Widow | Launch |
| Blade | Season 3.5 |
| Daredevil | Season 4.5 |
| Deadpool | Season 6 |
| Hawkeye | Launch |
| Hela | Launch |
| Human Torch | Season 1.5 |
| Iron Fist | Launch |
| Iron Man | Launch |
| Magik | Launch |
| Mister Fantastic | Season 1 |
| Moon Knight | Launch |
| Namor | Launch |
| Phoenix | Season 3 |
| Psylocke | Launch |
| Scarlet Witch | Launch |
| Spider-Man | Launch |
| Squirrel Girl | Launch |
| Star-Lord | Launch |
| Storm | Launch |
| The Punisher | Launch |
| Winter Soldier | Launch |
| Wolverine | Launch |
| Hero | Released |
| Adam Warlock | Launch |
| Cloak & Dagger | Launch |
| Deadpool | Season 6 |
| Gambit | Season 5 |
| Invisible Woman | Season 1 |
| Jeff the Land Shark | Launch |
| Loki | Launch |
| Luna Snow | Launch |
| Mantis | Launch |
| Rocket Raccoon | Launch |
| Ultron | Season 2.5 |
Elsa Bloodstone will be added during Season 6.5.
Many of the characters, in addition to other cosmetic skins, have unlockable or purchasable cosmetics based on alternative takes of these characters from their respective comic book series or Marvel Cinematic Universe appearances. Spider-Man also has a costume based on his appearance in the video game Marvel's Spider-Man 2.