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Marvel Rivals has seemingly captured a large swathe of players in the live service space, and Chinese developer NetEase has revealed the staggering amount of cash brought in during the game's first month: $136 million, according to estimates, with $36 million of that coming from China alone.Outlet GameLook has used various methods to determine the sum (thanks, GameWorldObserver), of which an estimated $54.7m stems from Steam, $27.2m from PlayStation, and just $2.7m from Xbox.
Season 1 doesn't even start until 10 January, so this is impressive stuff, and GameLook suggests that Marvel Rivals could be on track to make annual revenue of $1.36 billion over the year to come. Achieving a peak player count of 480,000 last month, Rivals is proving to be surprisingly sticky as well, boasting an astronomical player retention rate of 93% (50% is considered healthy in the service space).
Are you surprised to see Marvel Rivals become something of a juggernaut? If you play, what about the game that keeps you coming back? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source gameworldobserver.com]
Comments 87
What are you, a shareholder? One game does really well in a sea of flops and that is proof GaaS needs to be chased?
Rivals is really well made, but it is filling the void Overwatch left when it fell from grace for many, and it's also got a massively popular IP slapped on top of it. Of course it did well. Doesn't mean Concord or Fairgame$ are a shoe-in now. If anything it means another big chunk of potential audience as now locked in elsewhere.
I think HD2 selling 12 million units (last we heard) is more than enough proof of that. Or the constant sales of MLB The Show and consistent sales of GT7.
@Ogbert I think with Payday 3 failing, Fairgame$ may actually be in a decent position if the gameplay looks good (there is definitely a opening there unlike hero shooters).
@Ogbert it’s not ONE game in a sea of flops. In 2024 alone there were dozens of successful live services including Marvel Rivals, Helldivers 2, Infinity Nikki, Wuthering Waves, MLB 25, Zenless Zone Zero, etc. not to mention all the ongoing live services that dominate the most played charts every single month. COD, GTA, Fortnite, Genshin, Minecraft, FIFA, Madden, NBA, Apex, Roblox etc
I can understand personally not liking or not wanting live services games, but to ignore their increasing place in gaming is wilfully blind. Sony have the engagement stats, they have the revenue stats and they know which direction this is travelling and they want a larger piece of that pie.
That doesn’t mean they are making any less single player games, they have more studios now, it just means diversifying what they do make.
not a fan of GAAS, but yes,.. in business perspective, Sony should chase this live service dream, because it generates way too much money over the years.
Success of Chocolate Digestives proves that all food manufacturers must now make biscuits, regardless of expertise. Looking forward to Peperami Biscuits.
WoW what a shocker when you have a decent game based around a well liked franchise it does well. And good luck prying that audience away now they have committed & spent money.
Oddly enough when you release ***** you get ***** then everyone laughs at you.
It won't last forever. Once the newness wears off it'll start to die just like the others.
Its going to be interesting to see if Sony waste a few billion dollars on developing live service flops how well there doing financially afterwards. What am I saying, they'll just make it back off the fans by raising the price of Plus again or charging a thousand dollars for their next console.
@Ogbert one success could cover the cost of several flops and then make a profit.
All the more 💰 to fund Ananta. 🤝
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I hope Sony doesn't do a live service Spiderman game. We saw how well that worked out with SPUMC or whatever Sony called those 4 terrible spin off movies.
@Ogbert
This guy, Khayl Adam, is definitely bringing down the quality of push square articles. I'm going to stop clicking on any that I see he's written.
Yesterday I played for the first time WH40K BoltGun and hell... what a perfect shooter! It immediately made me feel like those perfect, simple, fun games from PS2/PS3 era and I also think, why is everyone live in delusion gamers need huge, multiplayer, balanced games with milions of mechanics, crafting, RPG epements, customisable characters and other unnecessary stuff? Isn't it all only about fun in it's core, rather than contain everything (and nothing) ? I think top developers absolutely lost themselves in vortex of "principles that atract people" rather than simple joy of making simple game.
So chase your GaaS dream Sony, but without me...
@ATaco Yeah, respectfully, this was very much a case of "knowing exactly who wrote this 'hot take' from the headline alone". Other writers fall prey to it too, but... yes.
@naruball The human cost of committing entire studios to such projects and then rapidly shuttering them in response, however...
@crossbit that... I can certainly agree with.
PlayStation should just stick with what they know
No they shouldn't. 🙄
Khayl Adam is awesome. Keep up the good work!
Too many games like this out there, so if they want to make a live service game, they need to make it very different.
Ah, I see everyone is already strapping on the blinkers and closing their mind to reality as usual. Trying desperately to pretend the year wasn’t completely dominated by live service games in which even utter trash like the First Descendant could hit 264k peak concurrent users on Steam.
FFVII Rebirth sold around 3M copies, Astro Bot launched at 1.5M, and Indiana Jones has sold around 200k copies on steam. Those games are the highest quality games of the year too, not random trash.
At the same time this game, which is confidently average, is about to make a billion dollars a year. Millions of people paid to play F2P Path to Exile 2 in early access, Helldivers 2 sold 12m units in 3 months and a Pokémon card game made $200m in it’s first month.
People act like Concord failing was some world ending event but losing $200-300m is small change when you’re chasing a $1b a year market.
@LifeGirl which failed live service game had unneccessary politcs inserted into it?
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Yes Khayl, what we all need from Sony is Concord 2.
And we definitely need Sony to focus on soulless cash grabs instead of being passionate about what they do and innovating.
I am a bit surprised it's as popular as it is. I figured the license would bring people in and then they would bounce pretty quick but apparently not.
I tried it and really didn't like it myself. Too chaotic and not in a fun way for me be but good for those that like it.
@Ogbert I'm becoming annoyed with people with your take on Marvel Rivals being a success after the many live-service failures and you blame it on being a recognizable IP. The Marvel Avengers game was a failure of a game. Other Marvel games have failed. Marvel Rivals is actually fun, has modes where you can be competitive and modes where you can just play for fun. Stop using the "Marvel is so recognizable" as to why it's a success. If $30 million alone came from China, that means it's not just the IP because multiple Marvel shows and movies have been banned from being watched in the country.
I think the most surprising thing there is just how low the Xbox revenue is.
Cool for Netease.
Don't see why Sony should pursue GAAS because of one live service success, especially given the failue of Concorde, but hey, could be funny to watch them waste their money.
Seems to me if you release a well-made GaaS with an appealing (existing or new) brand and art direction, which does something new (i.e. Genshin Impact, Infinity Nikki, Helldivers 2 ...) or fills a void (i.e. Marvel Rivals) and can create enough player engagement from the get-go, you have a good chance of success, since there are players "available".
If you release something well-made which does nothing new (enough), there will be no players "available" because they are likely already engaged in their GaaS (i.e. Concord, Suicide Squad, Redfall ...)
It's like MMO's, MOBA's or Battle Royals from days past, everyone claimed to be a WOW-, LoL- or Fortnitekiller but none or very few succeeded, as players had already sunk a lot of time and money in those games and didn't want to reinvest that time and money again in another game.
The reality is, this is Marvel based. Has a huggggee following already, comparing this with something Sony might release is rather pointless. They'll make a live service game around something that most people wouldn't have a clue about/ it could be a new IP. Marvel has a following of people who aren't gamers, so those fans might shift to the game to just play as all their favourites.
So no, this doesn't mean Sony should continue, maybe they should look at how many have actually been successful.
@themightyant you've missed his point entirely. The specific genre of "Overwatch-style" gameplay has always been "you're either going to beat Overwatch, or be dead within months" (as we've seen with Paladins, Concord and everything else). It's apparent the clear difference with Rivals is the word "Marvel", meaning that the only thing that has even come remotely close to surpassing Overwatch since 2016 has had to use one of the most popular modern IPs (and we're only a month since launch, so who knows how long it'll last?).
I don't care if they make the occasional game with it but stop implementing it in everything. In games like the uncharted series something that has a constant single player experience should not have it. Cheapens the game.
Another thing I don't like about those games is that they have a tendency to not put the effort in developing them graphically etc. Marvel rivals is simple. It does what it needs to do and for some people it's fun. For me, I need more stimulus than looking at something cartoony. Imagine the hyper comic detailed Marvel rivals? That would bring in more people, but of course it's more development time and they want instant money. Sound score also tens to take a dive
Yup, now is the time for sony to make Concord Rivals, just like marvel rivals but with concord characters, get on it sony, yours millions revenue awaits
Good for the half a million people that enjoy this, but personally I dislike the trend very much. Looking at the GAAS line-up last year, it’s the furthest from personal interest I’ve been from games since maybe 2012. The best of the live service games for me last year was Infinity Nikki and honestly the game’s not necessarily for me either, but I can recognize that it’s quality.
I just hope the industry keeps pumping out high quality single player experiences for my sake. I really like video games, so I want to keep enjoying them and the success of live service games and reports that games I love such as Rebirth and Alan Wake 2 fail to make sales does make me wonder if it’s a matter of time before the gaming experiences I enjoy just stop happening.
Marvel Rivals might be raking in a ton of revenue, but since it's a licensed property, the most important metric is the net profit that the Publisher/Developer makes after settling the licensing fees and paying over the royalties to the House of Mouse.
I do think using recognised and well-known IP for new GaaS titles is the way to go, since it's such a high-risk venture. I think this is where Concord faltered, as even though it was an original IP, it wasn't appealing at all.
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Sure but they have to do it the right way. They should be seriously taking notes from these asian studios if they really want a higher chance at getting a hit
@djlard Totally agree i miss the "one and done" style games of that era.
Edit - just realised i had the dlc for boltgun, jumping back in, great game 👍
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I haven’t played Rivals (and don’t really plan to) but the game definitely sparked a buzz in the community. The Marvel license surely helped push it up to the forefront.
Disney are probably the real winners here. Their Marvel output in the non-gaming space has been shaky for several years. Maybe this will usher in some decent movies and TV shows. 😅
@PorkChopExpress the license is part of it. Rivals would've died immediately in your scenario because of the fact that it was the concord cast. That's part of why concord itself died immediately in the first place. Because it had the concord cast lol
@Enigk we know Sony was doing a live service game for spiderman it was cancelled
@somnambulance rebirth made sales kitsse even say they are happy with rebirth numbers
I was not surprised. The moment it was revealed it looked like a hit, even if not for me.
I hope Sony has a major marvel IP and an appealing game for people then. Now even journalists are going "if they can make it we can too". Probably cause it's not your money. 😂
Don't forget Disney is getting in on this pie as well.
This is not as easy as it might look. This is a very special case with a huge IP pushing it and we will see what it's real staying power will be once the buzz goes down.
Bit of a stroke of luck, though.. innit? If Blizzard didn’t absolutely bumble Overwatch/Overwatch 2 over the last couple years, would it have been as popular? With games taking 5-10 years to make these days, it’s almost impossible to do that kind of market analysis to make the right game for the right moment. There is a very plausible timeline where this game releases and fizzles out due to OW2 being more popular at the time of release. Live service is still an absolute crap shoot.
I think the only way Sony could duplicate something like this is making a PlayStation all stars 2 but making it amazingly awesome.
Of course they need to pursue live service. Anyone who knows anything about games knows that. The people clutching their pearls and saying live service isn't worth it have no idea what they're talking about. Live service is the future, most of you people in these comments need to stop living in the past.
Sincere question. Is GameLook reliable in these estimates? This seems unrealistically high for the first month.
@Slayer25c This is true, but they said this more than half a year after launch. The press spin around the game was that it was considered a disappointment by Square for months before they commented to the contrary.
Everyone hates live service games but apparently everyone also plays and spends money on live service games 🤷🏾♂️
We already knew that giving fans what they want in a game like Marvel Rivals works. Sony has not attempted to do that yet. Only by accident with Helldivers.
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See? I said the same thing. But PlayStation needs to make a live service game that already has a fandom, i.e. The Last of Us, Killzone etc. Don't pump a little ve service game with unknown characters, nonexistent background and expect people to fall in love. You need motive. It's like they have no one who knows how to do branding.
Hire me, PlayStation.
I would prefer that they make an rpg live service rather than a shooter. Coz if it's rpg, I'd give it a go. If it's a shooter, I'd avoid.
The reason Marvel Rivals is a success is because its free and because its Marvel, also it helps the designs are fantastic as well.
@somnambulance One of the best selling games last year was Palworld, the best selling game of 2023 was Hogwarts. Single player games still sell tons, i mean this year will see a GTA VI that outsell everything this gen and the next.
@DennisReynolds True enough. I just hope DS2 and Judas, etc don’t get the “sales didn’t hit expectations” pitch. Hogwarts gives me hope. Palworld does not.
@themightyant This with a BULLET. Had every last one of these games on their platform and even some with deals. That and their pursuit of developers in China(and now India too) in general really shined even more last year-- even outside of gacha/live service.
Most people aren't honest about this subject at all and it's why I liked how the player's choice/voice category at the Game Awards last year really kind of exposed how things have been lately. People may not have liked the finalist, but it was a grand representation of where the focus is in the industry right now.
And indeed. The single player experiences have not stopped. There's genuinely something for everyone still.
Game dev has gotten slower and more expensive. It was frustrating to see Sony overly push the live service stuff when it was unclear what their studios were actually making. Insomniac, Asobi, Santa Monica and Guerrilla have now brought the goods and we now know what Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch are cooking. Sony clearly hasn’t abandoned their bread and butter. Concord was a high profile dud but there are enough successes elsewhere to suggest there’s room for more than one kind of game.
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@_Nightsever_ absolutely. I laughed so hard at the TGA Players Voice choices with 3 of 5 being gacha games and another DLC. Not because they are bad games or unworthy, quite the opposite, but because it should be a wake up call to all the overly dismissive “hardcore gamers” that think their view is the only way, when actually it’s the minority.
They noisily want to gatekeep what is good and bad and gaming, and not allow other views or forms of expression, it’s tiresome. When the games they like don’t get nominated it’s because of “biased liberal media pushing an agenda” and they want a fan vote to see the truth of “real gamers™“ instead… yet this is what the fans voted for. You couldn’t write it better… chefs kiss.
@Golem25 oh noes. Not the evil pronouns.
@ChrisDeku While those games might represent the highest quality in production, they're all a bit 'niche' still. Ff VII Rebirth is a part 2/3, so people will either have not played the first, or, like me- fallen off from the nonsense that was shoehorned in. Indie is a console/ microsoft exclusive, (maybe on ganepass also, so of course there'll be low sales) and Astro, likewise another exclusive, just doesn't appeal to certain audiences, myself included. (Because it's very pricey for a 20 hour campaign)
However, Space Marine 2, a AA title, has already sold 4.5 million copies. It's also cross-play, and I've been playing it with friends across pc/ xbox and ps5.
So clearly, this isn't about putting money in to get money out, it's about understanding what has an appeal to the customer, and why. Bloated costs don't necessarily make a better (or more fun) game.
Microsoft has successfully trained their customers to be low spenders due to Game Pass. Good job.
@J2theEzzo Space Marine 2 has not been sold 45 million copies. LOL
@Greifchen Sorry! Forgot the decimal in-between, haha. Will rectify!
@3Above It's generational I suspect. Us old heads are yelling at these kids and their live service like it's some new strain of rock n roll we don't quite understand and meanwhile the youngins, with their more flexible minds and superior reaction times, are having a blast playing games that constantly evolve.
If I'm being honest, I love my single player games but I envy these kids coming up. I'd have ate this GaaS stuff up.
Genshin and the like aren't necessarily live service. They are Gachas, functionally similar yet slightly different.
Won't touch this or and GaaS because they don't respect your time. Once your in you have to stay IN because you'll lose out by dropping it for a few months. I don't see the appeal of a game that drip feeds you content over years, puts all the best cosmetics behind a paywall and then when it stops making the dough shuts it off and you lose everything, because it's all kept server side.
I imagine sometimes going back in time 20 years and trying to explain the future idea of live service or gacha games to companies. They would think you insane......
Sony should have continued it development on it spiderverse game.
@Stale-Bread you insane
But they make billions
Umm so what were you saying
@knowles2 So they do and I've played plenty of Gacha games over the years, in fact I still play a couple now because of the time investment, however these are on my phone which makes them accessible pretty much everywhere.
Also why would I care if they make billions? I'm not a shareholder or have a stake in the company so it means nothing to me. All that does is make said companies chase the carrot and potentially lose millions in the process which could impact other games/series and of course actual people's jobs.
@knowles2 you said to companies and they very care about the fact they make billions.
The craziest thing to me about all this, is the fact that Sony does all these live service games but still makes games that I can play by myself. They do both!
Why are the people who don’t like live service games so mad about live service games?! Just don’t play them and play something you wanna play. It’s as simple as that!
You’re all miserable because you wanna be! There’s plenty out there to play! But here you all are being mad at something that doesn’t really affect you.
Why do some people here think you can only play 1 live service (and/or multiplayer) at a time? do yall only play 1 single player game at a time? why are people like me that like multiplayer not allowed to have the options that single player has?
@zupertramp it's official, we've lived long enough to see ourselves become the villians
Sony should take their 30% of store purchases for Marvel Rivals cash and leave live service games to others. Easier money and you don't end up making rubbish like Concord
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Just make a live service sequel to PS All Stars Battle Royale
If it's constructive feedback you want, consider what you're writing and who you're writing it for. Live service games are bad for everyone involved (except for the suits lining up their pockets). Players pay full price for bad, unfinished games, and are bombarded with dark pattern manipulation to keep them playing to perpetuate the revenue stream as long as possible. Granted, I understand and respect that far from everyone is as much against live service games as I am. But celebrating it comes across as incredibly tone deaf or worse, paid to shill an anti-consumer business model. It is not the first time this has happened on Push Square.
Doubt it’ll last. Most don’t. And quit encouraging it!
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This website is a joke with some of these articles. Encouraging something sony is terrible at and losing hundreds of millions is not a good thing. Not to mention rivals was made with passion. I didn't see any of that in concord or the upcoming "steal from the rich" game.
@SillyBoyJudas it undeniably helps. Yeah Avengers did bad but it didn’t do anywhere near as bad as the many new IP services that flopped.
That’s why companies have spent the last decade buying up IP and trying to revive them. People go for a more recognisable name. Doesn’t guarantee a win just as new IP doesn’t guarantee a loose. But in Rivals case it also filled a void another game left and was well made, which I said and gave it credit for.
@themightyant yeah that in many ways proves my last point though doesn’t it. There are already so many existing live service games like CoD and Fortnite and Genshin that already have fans tied down. Because that’s what these games are about, they are live service to keep you playing and paying there and nowhere else. And now there is another one filling the Overwatch void, so even less space.
I’m sure at some point someone will find a new thing in the space that takes off, Helldivers as you said was a surprise success. But it’s undeniable that Sony in particular has had a string of bad luck with these, with so many cancellations and one record smashing fail. So no, I don’t think the success of one licensed game made by somebody else means that Sony is guaranteed a win in the GaaS market. It’s that logic and money driven thinking that’s put this industry in so much turmoil these last couple of years.
@AhmadSumadi I know that for me at least, a big part of it is Sony used to be a hugely creative force. They did a lot of experimental things, they did AAA, AA and just weird experiments. They funded stuff like Journey!
But that’s kind of gone now. We get sporadic amazing big cinematic games from them but we don’t get the interesting stuff in between. That stuff was low risk, but also relatively low reward and no longer deemed worth the time. Whilst live service is high risk but insanely high reward.
Think how much was spent on Concord and how many mid-small games could have been made with that money? We could have had a few Concord adventure games, establishing the world and it’s characters and maybe then got a live service once we cared about them. That Twisted Metal GaaS that got canned could have just been a smaller reboot. Who knows we could have even had something like Journey funded again!
That’s what upsets me at least. All that hasgone at the cost of chasing the golden goose. It’s not about making interesting things anymore, not about making us come back to PlayStation with unique and fun games. They still happen between occasionally, but now the priority is driven by money, to make a new GaaS to lock us all in. Get that Fortnite money! Will it go back into funding fun and interesting things again? No. It’s for the shareholders.
PlayStation: for the Shareholders.
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