Marvel Rivals is gearing up for the start of season 3 next week, and we got our first look at some of the upcoming changes, including glimpses at the two new fan-favorite Marvel heroes, Phoenix (Jean Grey) and Blade. The season trailer also heavily teased that the villain Knull might be making his way to the game in future seasons.
Season 3 is a major turning point for the hero shooter, marking the start of its new two-month seasons and the start of the era where we'll be getting new heroes every month (one at the start of the season and one at midseason). Previously, seasons were about three months long, with new heroes coming out roughly every six weeks. The new cadence is an aggressive pace for expanding the game's roster, and threatens to keep the metagame churning even faster, assuming those new heroes are relevant at launch.
It's once again a high-stakes season for Rivals, which has been bleeding active players since launch. Based on SteamDB data, the start of each new half-season brings in fewer players than the previous (for example, fewer players joined for season 2.5 than for 2.0).
More concerning, is that even the the start of each half-season doesn't bring in enough players to reach the lowest amount of players from a full season. Season 2.0's peak count of 315,000 players sits below season 1.0's low point of 331,000 players, and season 2.5's peak of 190,000 is just below the season 1.5 valley of 196,000. That means the start of new seasons -- the most exciting moments for the game -- are losing their ability to bring in new players or bring old players back. Steam numbers don't include console players, but it's difficult to imagine the story there looking much different.
Rivals is probably hoping that the official launch of two long-awaited heroes and a faster seasonal rotation will reverse that trend. Here's everything we know about Marvel Rivals season 3.0 so far.
When does season 3 start?
Marvel Rivals season 3.0 is scheduled to start on Friday, July 11 UTC. Typically, this involves servers going down for a few hours around midnight PT before being turned back on for the new season in the very early morning.
Marvel/Screenshot by Adam Benjamin
New Marvel Rivals heroes
It's finally happening -- after half a year of being rumored additions to the roster, Jean Grey and Blade are officially joining the party. Jean Grey, wielding the powerful Phoenix Force, joins at season start. While we'll have to wait another day for a hero trailer to see her kit and abilities, the devs teased Phoenix's AOE damage through a chain-reaction mechanic and her mobility. They also said that Phoenix's ultimate deals massive damage and gets rid of enemy summons on the battlefield -- great news if you're facing down any combination of Namor's turrets, Moon Knight's ankhs, Peni's nests and Rocket's beacon (the latter of which have a team-up together).
... continue reading