Marvel Rivals publisher assures it’s not trying to kill Overwatch 2

Marvel Rivals publisher NetEase has assured there’s room for both the new hero shooter and Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 to coexist. One doesn’t have to outright replace the other.

When Marvel Rivals burst onto the scene at the tail end of 2024, it instantly drew millions of players over from other popular live-service games. Becoming the single most-played game on Steam, it’s since gone on to reach over 40 million players in total.

With its success, Overwatch 2 was initially in a tailspin. The game’s player count was rapidly declining and it wasn’t until devs revealed an entirely new game mode, multiple new heroes, and the introduction of a Perk system that it finally started to rebound.

However, despite the evident competition in the space, and as much as players may argue one is superior to the other, those involved on the ground level don’t want to get ahead of themselves. Instead, they’ve assured there’s room for both games to thrive alongside one another.

Blizzard

Overwatch 2 has only just started to rebound on the back of core gameplay shakeups and big announcements.

NetEase wants Marvel Rivals and Overwatch 2 to coexist

NetEase, publisher of Marvel Rivals and also Overwatch 2 in China, recently held its Q4 2024 earnings call, and as PCGamer first spotted, the company chimed in on the hero shooter genre as a whole.

Of course, Overwatch 2, and many other Blizzard titles, were unavailable in China for over a year, only returning in 2024 under NetEase. Now that the games are back on the market, NetEase plans to “revitalize the product and reach new highs.”

This will allegedly be done in concurrence with Marvel Rivals, rather than one game taking precedence over the other.

“Both Marvel Rivals and Overwatch are excellent hero shooters,” NetEase said. “The market is large enough to accommodate both games. NetEase will strive to meet the diverse demands of their respective player communities.”

Despite the rough waters early on, Overwatch 2 has indeed rebounded to a degree, with thousands of players jumping back in to check out all the new changes and additional content.

Moving forward, Marvel Rivals is expected to continue delivering new heroes, maps, and gameplay experiences much the same.

If anything, it could be argued the friendly competition will just help both games thrive in the long run.