While many games have claimed to be Overwatch killers in the past, Marvel Rivals might be the strongest competition yet. Released on Friday (or late on Thursday for America), Marvel Rivals is a new 6v6 hero shooter by NetEase Games starring Marvel heroes and villains. After the forgettable failure that was Concord, it’s a relief to see a hero shooter with fun gameplay, charming characters, and features distinguishing it from games prior.

For those who don’t know what a hero shooter is, they are shooter games with different playable types of characters, each with a unique moveset or role in the game. The class system can be seen in earlier games, but Team Fortress 2 is generally considered the original hero shooter as we know it today. Later games like Overwatch and Valorant have larger divisions of heroes, typically tanks, offense, defense, and support (although some like Overwatch 2 combine the offense and defense into the large category of damage).

Marvel Rivals’ take seems closest to Overwatch 2, with the Vanguard (tank), Duelist (damage), and Strategist (support) roles. Vanguards are larger characters capable of leading the charge and taking damage to protect the team; Duelists can dish out tons of damage and get a lot of kills; and Strategists focus on healing/buffing their team or weakening their opponents. Some examples are Captain America and Venom as Vanguards; Spider-Man and Wolverine as Duelists; and Mantis and Rocket Racoon as Strategists.

So far, the game has had an amazing launch, with a peak of 490K players on Steam alone (compared to Overwatch 2’s 76K). Players have also noticed an all-time low player count on Overwatch 2, with only 17,000 playing on Steam after Marvel Rivals released. Steam concurrent player count is not the best measurement, as many play on Xbox or PlayStation, but it gives a good idea as to how games are holding up. This has led to many believing that Marvel Rivals could finally be the “Overwatch killer” to end its chokehold on the market, but will it?

I’ve been playing the game since release, and have specifically waited till a little bit of the hype died down. Taking that into account, in my opinion, it won’t be the Overwatch killer many wish it to be. That term hasn’t just been used for Overwatch, many use it for games that could have succeeded Destiny, Halo, Call of Duty, and World of Warcraft mainly, but none have actually succeeded in doing so. Marvel Rivals is tons of fun, but it’s kind of chaotic with most picking Duelists rather than aiding the team as a Vanguard or Strategist, which is what Role Queue in Overwatch tried (and failed) to fix. While the issue seems to not be present in quickplay anymore, lower competitive ranks see this all too often.

Still, this doesn’t mean I think it will fail, quite the opposite. Marvel Rivals, while clearly drawing ideas from Overwatch, succeeds in differentiating itself with Team-Up attacks, extremely mobile characters, an interactive environment, and a beautiful art style. What will most likely happen is that fairly soon, player counts will somewhat even out between them. This would probably lead to some healthy competition to steadily improve both games, which Overwatch 2 is already doing. Closer to the release of its competition, Blizzard announced not only the Overwatch Classic event, but the return of 6v6 alongside its 5v5.

In short, Marvel Rivals seems to be a great game with a bright future ahead of it, certainly worthy of being Overwatch 2’s equal. Just as long as Blizzard keeps Overwatch 2 alive and changing for the better, both games will succeed far into the future. It is available for free on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5, so I’d recommend giving it a shot for yourself and see what you think!