When Marvel Rivals first debuted, it was the talk of the town. Virtually everyone was talking about the latest hero shooter on the block, whether it be praise for its bold team-up mechanics, appreciation for its gorgeous art style, or love for the adorable Jeff the Land Shark. While these things are all still strengths of the game, as is an impressive cadence for new hero releases and map drops, Marvel Rivals has experienced a fall from grace. At the same time, Overwatch 2 has been steadily improving itself, creating a scenario where Marvel Rivals and Overwatch 2 are surprisingly close together on Steam — something that suggests Overwatch likely has a significant lead overall.
Marvel Rivals‘ Steam player count is around 76,000 players at the time of writing, which is roughly 12% of the staggering 644,000 players that made up its peak player count. Overwatch 2 is currently at 36,000 players, which isn’t nearly as much of a drop-off as its peak of 75,000 when it came to the platform 2 years ago.
When considering how Steam is likely the least populated platform for Overwatch, as many PC players still access the game through Battle.Net, it can safely be assumed that Overwatch 2 is more active than its competition at the moment. To be clear, Marvel Rivals is not the “dead game” some players like to erroneously throw around, as its peak player counts of 100,000 a day on Steam (and higher for hero releases) are nothing to scoff at. Still, with the game continuing to lose players and it being unclear where its floor will be, it’s worth looking at what’s going wrong for Marvel Rivals (and right for Overwatch 2).
Why Marvel Rivals is Struggling in Late 2025
In addition to the natural fall-off of casual gamers that were simply trying out something that was popular during the game’s early months, Marvel Rivals’ struggles are three-fold, with each issue arguably having an equal impact on the game’s decline. Said problems are:
- A lack of Strategist heroes.
- Questionable balancing and matchmaking.
- An increasingly toxic community.
The most obvious of these issues is that the game is quickly growing stale for one of the three roles, as there hasn’t been a new Strategist released since Ultron came out back in May. Unfortunately, the future isn’t all that bright, either, as it’s hard to imagine the leaked characters for the next few seasons (Rogue, Gambit, Deadpool, and Else Bloodstone) being Strategists. There’s simply not as much to look forward to for Strategist fans, as, alongside a lack of new heroes for their role, the team-ups for the category tend to be more limited. This dovetails into less Strategist mains in matches, and with Vanguards always being hard to come by due to the pressure of the role, teams with four duelists are frustratingly common.
These unenjoyable matches blend with concerns about matchmaking and balancing. While NetEase has pushed back on the idea that it uses EOMM — a form of matchmaking where a developer tries to keep players hooked by giving them ranked losses right while they’re on the verge of ranking up — a majority of the community still feels that matchmaking just doesn’t feel right. Matches where one team dominates feel more common than not, with the game’s competitive mode sadly not feeling all that competitive most of the time. In terms of balancing, the community regularly questions why certain heroes go untouched for long periods of time, such as an egregiously long period passing before Luna was nerfed. On the flip side, certain nerfs feel unnecessary, like the latest update aiming to lower Ultron’s healing despite him only being viable in triple support as is.
Lastly, there’s perhaps the most damaging aspect of Marvel Rivals, and that’s the game’s community. Toxicity is a part of all online competitive games, with titles like League of Legends infamous for being harsh to newcomers. However, many Marvel Rivals players feel as if the punishments are not nearly harsh enough for those who are toxic in chat, leave matches, or throw games. It’s shockingly common for players to throw a match purely because they dislike a hero their teammates picked, leading to wasted time and undeservedly lost SR. Hero shooters already struggle to bring in newcomers as time passes, as dedicated players get too good at the game, making it hard for casuals to have fun and catch up. Marvel Rivals has this issue, but the problem becomes even worse with how nasty players can be in everything from ranked to quick play, as this behavior can push casual players away very fast.
Why Overwatch 2 is Thriving in Late 2025
On the flip side, Overwatch 2 has experienced multiple successes as of late. The most prominent of these is the Stadium game mode, as though the Stadium Draft was a brief misstep, the strategic elements of the mode have made it a big hit with fans. Consistent additions for the experience, like Stadium quick play, maps, upgrades, heroes, and fresh mechanics have all gone a long way to making it an attractive alternative to normal Overwatch. Couple this significant addition with appealing events in Season 18 that showered players in Loot Boxes, as well as a proper character progression system (something Marvel Rivals lacks, as there’s little to chase for a hero once reaching Lord status), and it’s clear to see why Overwatch is doing well at the moment.
The other big thing in Overwatch 2’s favor is that the community has something to look forward to. Recently, Team 4 developer made multiple mentions of a need to improve Overwatch‘s lore and storytelling if they want the game to be firing on all cylinders, something that fans have been desperate to see addressed for some time now. Additionally, something major has been teased for Season 20, and fans have real faith that the “next big thing” for the game will actually be deserving of that moniker thanks to what Stadium accomplished. This has undoubtedly been part of the motivation behind certain Marvel Rivals content creators jumping back to Overwatch 2, as not only do they see the lower interest in Rivals, but the optimism for the future of Blizzard’s hero shooter is undeniable.
Overwatch 2 is also able to dabble with collaborations, regularly having appealing crossovers with franchises like Persona, G.I. Joe, Transformers, and more.
Part of Overwatch 2’s early struggles can be attributed to the feeling that developers were not listening, whereas for the last several months, the opposite seems to be true. With Marvel Rivals, though, it’s unclear what its own “next big thing will actually be, as it feels like future seasons will just be more of the same. Additionally, players feel like they aren’t being heard, whether it be due to divisive balancing or unchecked toxicity. Hopefully, Marvel Rivals can recover, as a competitive hero shooter scene is a healthier environment for fans and developers alike.
- Released
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August 10, 2023
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Blood, Mild Language, Use of Tobacco, Violence
