Marvel Rivals Review (2026) – Is It Still Worth Playing?

Marvel Rivals launched in December 2024 as NetEase’s free-to-play answer to the hero-shooter genre, and it arrived swinging. Now well into Season 6.5 with Elsa Bloodstone joining the roster, the game sits at 47 playable heroes and still pulls roughly 93,000 concurrent players on Steam alone. But with over a year of updates, balance patches, and community complaints under its belt, is Marvel Rivals still worth jumping into in 2026? Here’s our verdict on whether this superhero team shooter deserves your time.

A Roster That Puts Marvel Fans First

The single biggest draw of Marvel Rivals is something no competitor can replicate: the Marvel license. Playing as Spider-Man and actually feeling like Spider-Man — web-swinging across the map, sticking to walls mid-fight, and launching web-bomb combos — delivers a power fantasy that generic hero shooters simply cannot match. The same goes for characters like Doctor Strange, whose portals create genuine tactical depth by letting your entire team reposition across the map in seconds, or Magneto, whose magnetic field manipulation can redirect enemy projectiles.

With 47 heroes spanning Vanguards (tanks), Duelists (DPS), and Strategists (supports), there’s genuine variety here. Each character brings a kit that feels distinct rather than a reskin of another hero’s abilities. The Team-Up system — where specific hero pairings unlock bonus abilities — rewards you for coordinating with your team. Pairing Rocket Raccoon with Groot gives Rocket a mobile tree fortress to perch on, while Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver gain enhanced ability synergies that reference their comic-book bond. If you’ve ever wanted to theory-craft hero combos, check out our Marvel Rivals best team comps guide for the current meta pairings.

Gameplay: Fast, Flashy, and Occasionally Frustrating

Marvel Rivals plays like a faster, more vertically-oriented Overwatch 2. Maps feature destructible environments that aren’t just cosmetic — collapsing a bridge can cut off a flank route, and smashing through a wall with Hulk opens new sightlines mid-match. The pacing is aggressive: matches rarely drag, and the 6v6 format means there’s always chaos happening somewhere on the map.

The problem is that this chaos often tips into frustration. Without a role queue system, nothing stops your team from running five Duelists and a single Strategist. Competitive matches frequently devolve into DPS free-for-alls where nobody wants to tank. Overwatch 2 learned this lesson years ago and implemented role lock; Marvel Rivals still hasn’t, and the matchmaking suffers for it. You’ll regularly face teams with coordinated compositions while your random squad argues over who has to switch to healer.

Hitbox inconsistencies compound the issue. Larger characters like Hulk and Venom have hitboxes that don’t always match their visual models, leading to shots that clearly connect on-screen but register as misses. Conversely, some projectile-based heroes have abilities with deceptively generous hit detection. This inconsistency is especially punishing in ranked play where every shot matters. For character-specific strengths and weaknesses, we’ve broken down the full roster in our Marvel Rivals tier list for February 2026.

The FPS Problem Nobody Talks About Enough

Here’s something that should bother you far more than it seems to bother NetEase: core gameplay mechanics are tied to your framerate. Magik’s teleport dash covers noticeably less distance at 30fps than at 120fps. This isn’t a minor visual quirk — it’s a competitive disadvantage baked into the engine. Console players running at 30fps are literally getting less ability range than PC players on high-refresh monitors.

Unreal Engine 5 optimization is another sore point. Even on a mid-range PC (RTX 4060, Ryzen 5 7600X), expect frame drops into the 50s during chaotic team fights with particle-heavy abilities. The game targets 60fps on PS5 and Xbox Series X but can’t maintain it consistently during large-scale engagements. Ray-tracing is available but tanks performance so badly that competitive players universally disable it.

If you’re having trouble even getting the game running, we’ve put together a guide to fixing Marvel Rivals launch issues on PC that covers the most common startup problems.

Live Service: Content Rich, Communication Poor

Credit where it’s due: NetEase has been consistent with content drops. New heroes arrive regularly, seasonal events bring limited-time modes, and the battle pass offers cosmetics without locking gameplay-relevant content behind paywalls. The free-to-play model is relatively fair — all heroes are unlockable through gameplay, and the premium currency is reserved for skins.

What’s less forgivable is the complete absence of a proper bug reporting system at launch, something that still hasn’t been meaningfully addressed over a year later. Community-reported bugs languish for months without acknowledgment. Balance changes arrive with minimal patch notes, leaving players to datamine the specifics themselves. For a live-service game competing against well-oiled machines like Overwatch 2, this lack of communication erodes trust over time.

How It Compares to Overwatch 2

The comparison is inevitable, so let’s address it directly. Marvel Rivals offers a more exciting power fantasy, more interesting team synergies through the Team-Up system, and a fairer monetization model. Overwatch 2 counters with tighter mechanical balance, role queue, better performance optimization, and years of refined matchmaking. If you want spectacle and Marvel fan service, Rivals wins. If you want competitive integrity and polished gunplay, Overwatch 2 still has the edge.