On Oct. 4, 2022, “Overwatch” servers were shut down and “Overwatch 2” was released. It gained popularity fast reaching its highest peak of 75,361 players according to “Steam Charts.” Ever since then, it slowly decreased in popularity.  Over time it became a game known for being money hungry.

Until one day on Dec. 6, 2024, when the game known as “Marvel Rivals” was released. The game had a similar playstyle to “Overwatch” but somehow it gained more popularity in under a week than “Overwatch” could in a month. This is shown with “Marvel Rivals” peak player count being 418,832 players according to “Steam Charts.” This is over quadruple the amount of players at which “Overwatch” peaked.

“I’m not even surprised ‘Marvel Rivals’ has a higher player count, the characters are balanced, gameplay is smooth, and learning characters play styles is actually fun compared to ‘Overwatch’ which is practically all the same thing over and over again, and don’t even get me started on ‘Overwatch’s’ balancing,” said Kyrie Williams, Taft junior.

“Marvel Rivals” also offers something “Overwatch” could never, which is an easy way to gain credits to purchase the cosmetics you want for your favorite characters, not by grinding nonstop levels on the battle pass, but by simply playing the game on certain characters and completing achievements you can gain credits for cosmetic items.

“‘Marvel Rivals’ is 10 times better than ‘Overwatch’ by a long shot, every character already has a skin and the game practically just released, and not only that but you can get the skins without paying a single penny just by playing a couple characters and getting some kills,” said Khalil Harris, Taft senior.

Unlike “Overwatch,” “Marvel Rivals” released with every character free to play and you didn’t have to unlock a single character. But if someone buys “Overwatch” they would have to play a certain amount of games just to unlock each character.

“The fact I can instantly play a game of ‘Marvel Rivals’ and instantly have access to each character but if I played ‘Overwatch’ I’d have to start the game with a random character just to unlock the character I wanted to play is genuinely wild, and people still say ‘Overwatch’ is a good game?” said John Williams, Taft freshman.