Players believe that Marvel Rivals is "hard-carrying" the entire Marvel franchise

After the release of NetEase Games’ hero-shooter game, Marvel Rivals, the title had a big impact on the Marvel Universe. Including most of the mainstream superheroes and villains, the brand features numerous characters. While the majority of the superheroes and villains are not very popular among fans, this team-based PvP title introduced various characters that players have not seen before.

Marvel Rivals is doing something the MCU seemingly forgot how to do byu/Vanderlyley inmarvelrivals

Recently, a post on Reddit from u/Vanderlylay garnered a lot of popularity among players. In the post, the user claims that many Marvel Rivals players are getting to know about various characters that haven’t debuted in any live-action TV shows or movies, such as Luna Snow, Jeff the Landshark, Galacta, Squirrel Girl, and more.

In their opinion, MR is “hard-carrying” the Marvel brand since the latter has not been performing very well recently.

In response, u/JayD0za21 says:

“Man, the kid in me loves Spider-Man, But the adult who plays rivals every day hates his guts with a passion.”

Comment byu/Vanderlyley from discussion inmarvelrivals

Following the main post on Reddit, u/DefNotPastorDale expressed that Marvel Rivals is the reason they started purchasing old and new copies of Marvel Comic Books. They further stated that the brand needed some revitalization, and Rivals is doing that.

While most fans are discussing their favorite comic characters, Marvel Rivals player u/Illustrious-Long5154 commented:

“I think they need some more low-level characters. I really want to see Songbird. She’s perfect for this game.”

Comment byu/Vanderlyley from discussion inmarvelrivals

Another player, u/Sixgis, stated they love the X-Men and want to see Gambit and Cyclops added to this hero-shooter title. The user also said that these characters are not as popular as Loki or Iron Man but are well-known among fans who know little about Marvel.

User u/Polygeekism expressed they just got back to reading comics recently:

“I got back into comics recently, and the local comic shop has said that more people have come in to get comics again because of rivals, than all of the MCU.”

Note: Aspects of this article are subjective and reflect the writer’s opinion.

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How is Marvel Rivals positively affecting the brand better than MCU?

In Marvel Rivals, there are a number of superheroes and villains that the MCU doesn’t feature. Over the years, the latter has mainly focused on the mainstream characters while overshadowing others. Since this hero-shooter title features all Marvel characters regardless of their popularity, fans have taken a liking to various characters that haven’t appeared in any movies or TV shows.

Due to this fact, fans have started purchasing various comic books featuring their favorite character, as there is not much live-action content that includes them.