Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Captain America walk into a bar… or, in this case, a brand new video game. “Marvel Rivals” is proving the only thing more powerful than their punches is their popularity. The game, which was released in (month), has gained rapid popularity among teens, MCU lovers, and a ton of different groups. 

Since the game’s release it has gained over 40 million players worldwide in only the first month of release and over $136 million in sales, making the game an exploding success in only the first few weeks.

“Marvel Rivals” is a team based, third person shooter game. You have to pick and compose the best team compositions from the 35 different heroes. You can play as Groot, Mantis, Iron Man, and many many more, an option that only widens the game’s possibilities. 

You can play as a duelist, and they give out large amounts of damage, a vanguard, who can give you increased health and go first in the line of fire, or, a strategist who heals your team. Teams consist of six people. On a team you either defend the objective or attack it. Players can enjoy the basics of combat in quick play and experiment with the playstyle of different heroes. 

Quickplay has three different objectives for you to complete that are randomized each game; convoy, domination, and convergence. Convoy is meant for you to push the cart to different checkpoints to win the round. Domination and convergence deal with capturing and securing the checkpoint for your team.

You can also play competitively and make your way through the ranks. The game also provides more laid back combat to test out new heroes and try to kill as many people as possible. 

But what do all of these different modes and settings mean? Easy. “Marvel Rivals” has completely changed and set the stage for what a PVP shooter game should really be like. People have been wanting a game like this to hit the market, and it is refreshing to see so many people enjoying it.

The developers actually listened to the players, the game provides addicting combat and each hero is given its own personal kit, allowing players to choose who they want to mainly play. 

With the release of Season One, drastic changes have been implemented to the games performance which was one of the biggest complaints. It took similar games, like “Overwatch,” years to listen to their player base when there were issues with performance and overpowered characters. It only took the Rivals team one month to fix some of the biggest problems.

Listening to the game’s community is crucial to keeping players. Adding and changing things to the game truly shows that the developers care about the game and players. Whether it’s making Hela and Hawkeye weaker, buffing Cloak and Dagger, balancing the characters and putting some fan-favorites in the game, everything helps keep people anticipating the next update. And “Marvel Rivals” has done it incredibly well. 

In Season One, the Fantastic Four was added to the list of heroes, along with new maps, lore, and character skins. The game itself is free, but you can buy custom skins for different heroes that are taken from the Marvel comics. 

Whether you play the game because of Marvel’s characters, or simply play because of the combat . The game itself has revived the gaming community and joined all types of communities together. The future for the game is bright, just like Adam Warlock.