Marvel Rivals Season 4 just launched with new content, but its day-one player count on Steam hit an all-time low compared to previous seasonal launches.
It’s been a busy few months for Marvel Rivals, the free-to-play 6v6 hero shooter from NetEase and Marvel Games. Season 4 officially kicked off last week on September 12, bringing new content like the flying tank Angela, a new map called K’un-Lun: Heart of Heaven, and the upcoming hero Daredevil, who joins the roster in mid-October. It also marked the launch of the game on PS4, expanding the console reach even further.
So on paper, things look like they’re moving in the right direction. New characters, regular updates, and even fun cosmetics like the Swimsuit Summer Special. But there’s one problem: the player count on Steam keeps falling.
And Season 4 just hit the lowest day-one peak in the game’s history.
Steam Player Count Shows Record-Low Launch for Marvel Rivals Season 4
According to live data from SteamDB, Marvel Rivals peaked at 132,100 players on its Season 4 launch day, the lowest day-one peak since the game’s original early access release. While that’s still a healthy number for many games, it’s a steep drop from where Marvel Rivals started back in December 2024.
To break it down simply: the game hit its all-time high during Season 1 in January with over 644,000 concurrent players. Since then, each season and mid-season update has seen a gradual decline.
Here’s how the day-one peak numbers look for each release:
- Release: 444,286
- Season 1: 644,269
- Season 1.5: 437,915
- Season 2: 315,196
- Season 2.5: 190,368
- Season 3: 163,232
- Season 3.5: 149,471
- Season 4: 132,100
For comparison, Overwatch 2, widely seen as Marvel Rivals’ biggest competitor, is pulling in around 45,000 peak players per day just on Steam. But it’s worth noting that the majority of Overwatch 2’s playerbase is on Battle.net, so it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. During non-peak hours, Marvel Rivals is currently hitting around 50,000 players.
Looking ahead, players can expect Daredevil to be added in Season 4.5 this October. Leaks also suggest that Rogue and Gambit may be coming in Season 5 and 5.5, though none of that is confirmed yet.
Meanwhile, recently Marvel Rivals director hinted that NetEase might introduce original, non-Marvel characters into the game sometime in the future. That’s raised some eyebrows among fans, especially those hoping the game sticks to its comic book roots.
Are you still playing Marvel Rivals? Is the game doing enough to keep you interested? Let us know your thoughts below.
