Free-to-play Marvel Rivals launched less than two weeks ago and has already amassed over 20 million players. A special spray celebrating the new milestone is currently available in the game, accessible to anyone who logs in by 10 January 2025. However, separate stats for PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 are not currently available.

Developed by NetEase, Marvel Rivals reached 10 million players 72 hours after launch. The developer managed to keep its servers up and running despite millions of people reaching the hero shooter experience. Although there are chaotic situations during the role, a fix for this is sure to come.

The announcement comes as the developer prepares the game’s first content update ahead of Season 1. The event, dubbed ‘Winter Celebration, Joyful Ecstasy’, kicks off on 20 December. The event features a brand new 4v4 game mode where each player takes on the role of Jeff the Land Shark. In arcade mode, instead of fighting each other, players will cover the level with their team’s colour before the timer runs out, similar to Splatoon.

The Cuddly Fuzzlefin skin will be unlocked for all players who log in during the event’s festivities, and more unlocks, such as sprays and nameplates, can be obtained by completing challenges. It’s worth noting that not all of this will be free. Four event-exclusive winter-themed skins will be available for purchase for Groot, Rocket Raccoon, Venom, and Magik.

Following the end of the winter event, NetEase plans to launch the first seasonal content update for Marvel Rivals in January 2025.

Marvel Rivals most powerful characters

The strongest characters are one of the most curious questions for Marvel Rivals, one of the popular productions of the last period, as in many games. So which are the strongest characters in the game, which includes many known Marvel characters?

If you’ve spent some time with NetEase’s new hero shooter Marvel Rivals, you already know that the game features many powerful heroes and villains. Still, with a base roster of 33 characters, there’s no shortage of standouts. Posts and humorous videos about the game have already taken social media by storm, with many of them focusing on which characters have caused a ton of frustration and annoyance for the game’s ten million-plus player base. After playing a few hundred matches myself, I’ve found some to be far more terrible than others.

So today, we’re going to rank the strongest Marvel Rivals characters based on how much they drive fans crazy. Of course this list may change in the future depending on new additions or balance patches, but for now here are the best characters in Marvel Rivals;

6. Moon Knight

Marc Spector, or Moon Knight as he is known, may be a relatively low-level character in terms of power in the Marvel comics, but he is a serious threat in Marvel Rivals. His Crescent Darts and Moon Blades can bounce not only between enemies in close proximity to each other, but also between their Ankhs, which they can place at all sorts of odd angles to take bonus damage. Moon Knight is quite agile, easily climbing buildings or lookout points with his double jump and hook shot skills. And while his ultimate, Hand of Khonshu, is easily dodgeable when spotted, the fact that it comes directly from above means that many players have found that it’s best to place this shot slightly behind the enemy team. This capitalises on players’ tendency to retreat when they can’t immediately see where the ultimate attack is coming from, leading them straight into the damage zone.

This character requires a bit of foresight and positioning, but once you grasp the basics, Moon Knight becomes one of the biggest threats to an enemy team.

5. Star-Lord

The title ‘Legendary Star-Lord’ may be a phrase Peter Quill uses more than any other, but in Rivals, he more than lives up to the extravagant codename. A variant of Overwatch’s Tracer with the ability to fly instead of travelling back in time, Star-Lord is a lightning-fast shooter. His elemental weapons quickly deal high damage. He can fly out of a hot zone in an instant, and his Stellar Shift dodge ability, which has two charges before cooldown, not only reloads his weapons, but also gives him invincibility. When it comes to hit-and-run tactics, few Rivals characters can match Star-Lord, making his ultimate even more outrageous. Galactic Legend combines hard hitting and fast reloading weapons with free flight and auto-aim, meaning that unless someone catches him the moment he activates, there is little the enemy team can do but take cover and wait for the ability to end.

As a squishy DPS character, you still need to be careful with health. But if you’re fast and good at managing cooldowns, Star-Lord is in the right hands

4. Scarlet Witch

There was no way the most powerful Avenger couldn’t be featured in a Marvel hero shooter, and Wanda Maximoff returns to the spotlight once again as one of Rivals’ deadliest duelists. Despite ostensibly being a healer (like that’s a bad thing), she can drain enemy health bars without needing to aim much. His lock-on spell is joined by powerful Chthonian Burst missiles, which he can launch frequently, and Mystic Projection, which grants him free flight and the ability to avoid all damage for a short period of time. Once in rhythm, Wanda can destroy enemies at both close and long range, and can easily dodge retaliations or enemy ultimates without even needing to be well positioned. She also has an ultimate, Reality Erasure, which has a long recharge time but instantly vaporises all enemies in range. It’s more than worth the wait.

As a Scarlet Witch main, I’m probably hated by many players. But if liking Wanda in this game is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

3. Hela

This may not be so obvious to casual players, but true Rivals players definitely know why Hela made this list. The Goddess of Death lives up to her name; her Nightsword Thorn primary fire can take out heroes at a distance with just a few critical hits, and her Piercing Night attack often kills them outright with a single shot. While not technically a sniper, in the hands of a skilled enough player it can basically function as one.

And let’s not forget Hela’s ultimate, Goddess of Death, which allows her to hover above the area and rain hellfire from above. Thor and Loki may be the more popular characters, but Hela is the true Asgardian threat to look out for.

2. Jeff

No one would have thought a cute puppy shark could cause so much hysteria, but Jeff the Land Shark quickly became one of the most hated heroes of Marvel Rivals.

Why? He’s a healer and not exactly built for the front lines (even if his primary attack is deceptively powerful and has damage reduction against critical hits). But the real reason Jeff is so feared is because of his ultimate ability, It’s Jeff, which unleashes the small black shark’s terrible appetite! Jeff is invincible when using this ability, and after selecting a circular area, he will instantly devour anyone within that area, friend or foe. Enemies take damage when they enter Jeff’s stomach, but the real value of this ability is that it can act in conjunction with other players within it, meaning Jeffs will often spit enemies into bottomless pits. Some even guarantee a suicide kill by jumping over the edge with the enemies inside them.

This ability has a counter move, of course. Scarlet Witch, for example, can usually avoid being devoured with a well-timed Mystic Projection.

It may be designed to keep his allies healthy, but clever use of his ultimate makes Jeff an absolute threat on the battlefield.

1. Iron Fist

No character inspires more primal terror in the hearts of Marvel Rivals players than the immortal Iron Fist Lin Lie. This master martial artist possesses some of the most insane powers in the game. Not only do his quick punches allow him to kill healers and duelists with impunity and grant himself bonus health in the process, but he also has four air jumps before cooldown and a spin kick that launches him forward. This means that by timing his attacks and jumps well, he can effectively fly and literally chase characters like Iron Man across the sky. But that’s not even the worst of it. He can also use Dragon’s Defence as a parry manoeuvre against almost any attack in the game. No, really. It can protect itself from being nuked, defeated by Jeff, or erased from reality by Wanda. If there’s an Iron Fist on the enemy team who knows a little about it, you’re in for a headache.