The first full year of Marvel Rivals was an impressive one in a number of metrics, but according to the developers working on the free-to-play hero shooter, the game is only beginning.
Looking back on its first year, Marvel Rivals delivered a lot of content. Whether it’s MCU-based skins in partnership with Fantastic Four: First Steps, limited-time events with free rewards, or a shocking amount of new heroes, a tough precedent has been set. But Marvel and NetEase Games are not resting anytime soon.
“2025 was more of a warm-up period for us,” Marvel Games executive producer Danny Koo said in an interview with Den of Geek. “Next year, we’re going to have bigger plans. We’re not going to slow down. We’ve already planned more than a year ahead and I can’t wait for our players to see it.”
In just one year, Marvel Rivals already has the same number of playable characters as another hero shooter, Overwatch 2, after adding 12 to the game in 2025. That number will be surpassed quickly as Deadpool joins the roster in January, followed by Elsa Bloodstone in February, and another new hero every single month for the foreseeable future.
This is going to be tough to balance, but I can’t deny that this cadence keeps me coming back consistently. And according to publisher NetEase Games’ publishing and marketing lead, Yachen Bian, 2026 will include more playable experiences to supplement the characters on offer.
“In the next year, we want to provide more game modes,” Bian said. “It’s why we have prototypes in the game, like PvE and 18v18. We want to give the players more choices of different game modes beyond the basic gameplay because your fundamental experience might be very different. When you’re fighting against zombies, it’s quite different from fighting against other people.”
The first year of Rivals already included several new modes like Marvel Zombies PvE mode, a Times Square social space, and even a PvP auto-battler mode, so if there’s more in the works, I and many others will likely be continuing to log in and play some games occasionally for a long time to come.
With 2026 boasting the potential for more PvE experiences, popular and iconic heroes like Deadpool joining the roster, the launch of a new esports model, and further MCU partnerships likely in the pipeline (Spider-Man: Brand New Day launches in August, followed by Avengers: Doomsday in December), maybe they really are just getting started.
