Marvel Rivals Shatters Player Count Record with Season 1 Launch
The free-to-play team-based shooter, Marvel Rivals, has achieved a new peak concurrent player count following the release of Season 1: Eternal Night Falls. The game saw a staggering 644,269 concurrent players on January 11th, significantly surpassing its previous record of 480,990 set during its launch week.
Season 1: A Night of New Content
Launched on January 10th, Season 1 introduced a wealth of new content to keep players engaged. This includes new playable characters, a fresh game map, performance improvements and optimizations, a revamped ranked system, and a new Battle Pass. The influx of exciting new features clearly resonated with players, driving the massive surge in concurrent players.
The season's narrative revolves around Dracula and Doctor Doom plunging the game's city into perpetual night, unleashing vampiric forces to build Dracula's empire. Players are aided in their fight against this darkness by the arrival of the Fantastic Four as new playable allies.
For detailed patch notes, including specific character adjustments, visit the official Marvel Rivals website or the Steam community page.
Mod Support Removed
The update, while bringing substantial new content, also removed support for community-created mods. The implementation of asset hash checking now detects and flags modifications to game files, leading to warnings or bans for players using unauthorized content, including custom skins and modifications.
This change has sparked a mixed reaction within the community. While some mourn the loss of custom creations like Luna Snow's Hatsune Miku skin, others view it as a necessary step to maintain fairness and prevent cheating in a free-to-play game that relies on cosmetic sales.
