Marvel RivalsNetEaseGiven the hype surrounding the game, it seemed somewhat likely that Marvel Rivals would beat its launch concurrent playercount. Now, we know just how much its beaten that old metric.On Steam, where the majority of Marvel Rivals gamers are, season 1s launch day brought in a record high of 644,269 players. Thats up from the launch record of 480,990 players, which makes this around a 34% increase. Its possible that this is going to be as high as it goes for the season, but at times we see weekend spikes on Saturday on Sunday nights, so well see.These numbers briefly made Marvel Rivals the most-played game on Steam when CS2 was on its off-hours. Rivals has remained a Top 10 game on Steam since launch, often in the top 5, where it current sits at the time of this writing (a huge chunk of players are in China, which can make its peak hours different than some).Marvel RivalsSteamdbRivals is performing exceptionally well on console as well. Without specific figures, we can see that Rivals is the #4 game on PlayStation, behind only list staples 2K25, Fortnite and Call of Duty, and ahead of College Football 25, Madden 25, FC 25, GTA 5 and Roblox. Thats extremely impressive. Xboxs charts lag pretty far behind so we dont have season 1 launch data yet. That said, Marvel Rivals was still the seventh most-played game on the platform as of the last chart update, and no doubt it will rise from there once more data from season 1 kicks in.PS top 10SonyMORE FOR YOURivals is also performing great on Twitch with loads of popular shooter streamers heading over there for ranked play. Its currently behind only League of Legends, and at times, has been above it.NetEase was smart in that they set up a double-sized season in order to keep momentum going and wow everyone with just how much was being added. Thats four heroes (the entire Fantastic Four), three maps and a $10 battle pass with ten full skins to unlock.Yes, we are definitely still in the honeymoon period, and while Rivals is being called an Overwatch killer, we have to remember thats a nine year-old game. That said, breaking into the multiplayer PvP shooter space has been close to impossible the last few years, and Marvel Rivals is effectively the only game in this genre Ive seen perform this well this quickly. Its a Valorant or Apex situation, which is what I might compare it to. Or maybe even better, potentially. Well see how things go from here.Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.