‘Marvel Rivals’ Steals the Spotlight as Nearly Half of Former ‘Overwatch’ Players Jump Ship According to Report

Marvel Rivals has quickly become one of the biggest games in the world — and it took a huge chunk of Overwatch 2 players with it.

According to a new report from NewZoo, 45% of Overwatch 2 players who stopped playing in December 2024 started playing Marvel Rivals instead. Many people expected Marvel Rivals to take players away from Overwatch, but now we have the numbers to prove it.

Overwatch 2 launched in October 2022 with high player numbers. But over the next year, the number of players started to go down. In 2024, the game stayed mostly the same until December, when Marvel Rivals was released.

Blizzard tried to bring back players with the Overwatch: Classic Event, and while that gave the game a 12% boost in players, it didn’t last long. After that, the player count dropped 26%, right when Marvel Rivals came out.

Even though Marvel Rivals launched at the end of 2024, it was still one of the most played games of the year. It had the eighth highest playtime on Steam overall and was the third most-played new release in 2024 — only Helldivers 2 and Palworld did better.

On Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox, Marvel Rivals was the only big free-to-play game from 2024 that hasn’t shut down or lost more than 90% of its players. That’s rare in the current market.

Marvel Rivals’ player count has gone down a little since launch, but things might pick up again soon. Season 2 is about to begin, and that could bring in a new wave of players.