Marvel Rivals Season 1 Global Release Times Confirmed, Maintenance Planned Ahead of Launch

Marvel Rivals developer NetEase Games has confirmed the global release times for the Season 1 update, which sees the arrival of the Fantastic Four.

While Marvel Rivals is available across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, NetEase has targeted a simultaneous launch for Season 1, dubbed Eternal Night Falls, on January 10.

Season 1 begins with the addition of Invisible Woman and Mister Fantastic, with Human Torch and The Thing arriving in the second half of the season. There are three new maps, special events, and a new Doom Match game mode.

The new Battle Pass includes "over double the content" of the Season 0 pass, NetEase said, with the Luxury Pass featuring 10 new costumes for the heroes.

The three new maps include Sanctum Sanctorum and Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown, which arrive in the first half of the season, and Central Park, which will be added in the second half.

The new Doom Match puts 8-12 players in factions on a single map. Players begin in different parts of the map and earn points by knocking out enemies. Whichever faction includes the top 50% of players wins.

NetEase has published the Marvel Rivals Season 1 patch notes early, revealing all the nerfs and buffs coming to the cast of playable characters. When you're done with that, check out official stats that reveal Marvel Rivals' pick and win rates in Quickplay and Competitive modes for Season 0.

Marvel Rivals Season 1 Eternal Night Falls global release times

• 1am PST, January 10
• 4am EST, January 10
• 9am GMT, January 10
• 10am CET, January 10

It’s worth noting that NetEase plans to bring the Marvel Rivals servers offline for just over two hours ahead of the launch of Season 1 for planned maintenance. During this time players will not be able to access the game.

• Maintenance Schedule: 11pm PST January 9 to 1.10am PST January 10.

The maintenance looks set to bleed into the Season 1 launch time, so players should brace themselves for a delay unless NetEase can bring the maintenance to an end earlier than planned.

Marvel Rivals is a smash hit for NetEase, securing 10 million players in just three days and 20 million in two weeks. The free-to-play superhero team-based PvP shooter launched on December 6 across PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, and while Sony and Microsoft do not make player numbers public, Steam makes Valve stats available.

On Steam, Marvel Rivals peaked over its launch weekend with 480,990 concurrent players, which was enough to put it in the top five most-played games on Valve's platform. It’s the 20th highest concurrent player number ever seen on Steam, ahead of the likes of Helldivers 2, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Destiny 2.

Check out IGN’s Marvel Rivals Review to find out what we think. And keep an eye on the latest Marvel Rivals codes for free skins, and vote on the strongest Marvel Rivals characters in our community tier list.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.