NetEase may not be a household name like EA, Bethesda, or Ubisoft, but it has worked with huge brands like Marvel as well as published numerous critically acclaimed titles. It has slowly been building its name in both the traditional video game market and the mobile gaming scene, too, garnering astonishingly large player bases for its biggest games and generating a lot of money as a result.
Suffice it to say, NetEase is doing incredibly well, and its exciting upcoming Uncharted-esque single-player game that looks set to rival even the most impressive PlayStation-produced experiences is proof of that. Of course, this success is due to a number of incredible titles, perhaps the most famous of which is Marvel’s biggest gaming project in decades, a game that has taken the world by storm and continues to dominate the multiplayer market.
It’s A Good Year For NetEase Games
Everything From FragPunk To Marvel Rivals
NetEase has been responsible for some of the biggest and most beloved games this year, including the incredibly popular FragPunk. It has had enormous success when it comes to its multiplayer offerings, with FragPunk garnering over 100,000 players at launch on PC alone, according to Steam Charts, and, of course, Marvel Rivals continuing to be an all-consuming experience for many, myself undeniably included.
NetEase has also released a handful of smaller yet nevertheless critically acclaimed titles like Rusty Rabbit. It also continues to support several larger projects, like Once Human, and has several massive mobile games out, including Racing Masters, and in production, such as Destiny: Rising. All of this is absolutely sustained by the continued and mesmerizing success of Marvel Rivals, which, despite rumors of poor player count numbers, continues to do extremely well.
Marvel Rivals Still Has A Dedicated Playerbase
It Is Frequently Hitting Above 100,000 Players On Steam Alone
While it is absolutely true that Marvel Rivals’ player count has decreased substantially since launch, it remains healthy for a multiplayer title that is nearly a year old. Indeed, Marvel Rivals is stealing Overwatch players thanks to its gargantuan success, proving it is the dominating force when it comes to the hero shooter genre. Currently, according to Steam Charts, it is still garnering over 100,000 players each day, and that is just on PC. We can’t account for console numbers, but one would expect them to be similarly high.
Of course, this success hasn’t come without a cost, as Marvel Rivals’ developer saw massive layoffs shortly after launch. One can hope that NetEase’s enormous success will lead to far fewer layoffs in the future as it continues to dominate the mobile gaming market and moves swiftly into taking over the live service multiplayer scene as a whole. Marvel Rivals is undeniably its moneymaker at the moment, so we can likely expect it to go all-in on it in the coming years.
Marvel Rivals
8/10
- Released
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December 6, 2024
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Violence
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 5
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
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Limited – console crossplay, no PC crossplay
