The Game ‘Marvel Rivals’ Faces Serious Player Drop on Steam Ahead of Its Early 2025 Launch
The game ‘Marvel Rivals’, set to launch officially in December 2024, is currently experiencing a significant player drop on Steam, raising concerns about its long-term viability. Despite still being in a closed beta state, recent statistics indicate a worrying trend for this game, particularly on PC.
Marvel Rivals Officially Launching in December 2024, Quickly Gaining Attention in the Gaming Community
The game features iconic superheroes from the Marvel universe and offers an engaging 6v6 combat experience. Its fast-paced gameplay has attracted a large player base, including fans of Overwatch 2 as well as newcomers to the hero shooter genre. The peak player count reached 644,269 on Steam in January 2025, a promising number for any live-service title. However, since then, player engagement has started to decline without signs of recovery.
According to data from SteamDB, February 2025 recorded a 32% drop in players, equivalent to over 206,000 players, further indicating a decline in engagement. The downward trend continued into March, with a 33.7% drop recorded. April brought a slight glimmer of hope with an 8.6% increase, but the past 30 days have shown a significant decline of nearly 37%. In the last 24 hours, Marvel Rivals only saw 133,416 concurrent players, a stark contrast to its peak early in the year. This situation raises considerable concern for a live-service game, especially when trying to build a sustainable community over the long term.
Despite the alarming player statistics on Steam, there are still many factors suggesting that Marvel Rivals is not ‘dead yet’. The game is not only launching on PC but also on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, where detailed player statistics have yet to be fully disclosed. However, on these console platforms, Marvel Rivals remains among the most popular free-to-play titles, indicating that it still holds a significant appeal at least at a surface level. The primary challenge lies in establishing a strong foothold among PC players, where competition with other FPS and live-service games is particularly fierce.
It’s not uncommon for player counts to dip following a major launch in the live-service sector. However, without a solid content strategy and timely updates, Marvel Rivals could easily slip into obscurity, a fate that has befallen many other games of its kind.
