Marvel Rivals seems a bit unstoppable at the moment, even if mods don’t work anymore, as it hit a new player count peak this weekend.
We all already knew that Marvel Rivals is popular, but its real test was always going to be how it fared when its first season dropped. That first season dropped a couple of days ago, and lo and behold, the game is popular – so much so, that it hit an all-time concurrent player count peak of 644,269 people, making it one of the most played games this weekend. It’s also the game with the 14th highest all-time peak ever on Steam, putting it above games like Apex Legends and the also recently released and popular Path of Exile 2. Those are some big, strong numbers, and certainly cements that Marvel Rivals is here to stay – perhaps unsurprising considering the IP attached to it, but relevant given how many live service games die right out of the gate.
The downside? That season 1 update has also now stopped players from using mods, something that has quite quickly gotten popular given the presence of classics like a Thomas the Tank Engine skin for Jeff The Land Shark. Some other mods include things like a Pochita from Chainsaw Man skin for Jeff, Vegeta for Iron Man, and Goku for Spider-Man. There’s already quite a few mods in general for the game over on Nexus Mods, most of which are visual tweaks, performance improvements, and the like, but obviously the concern from NetEase Games will be players using mods to cheat.
Mods like skins have been banned from use right from the get-go, so this update isn’t surprising in any capacity. In a comment to IGN, NetEase even said that it is “not recommended to modify any game files, as doing so carries the risk of getting banned.” It’s not like the game needs any help, but games like Team Fortress 2 are popular to this day because of the game’s prolific modding and custom content scene. Not much to be done about it now, so I guess you’ll just have to appreciate regular Jeff The Land Shark.