Marvel Rivals will likely have more characters than Overwatch 2 by the end of 2025

If Marvel Rivals continues to deliver 4 new heroes per season with 4 new seasons per year, it will already have more heroes than Overwatch 2 does by the time 2026 comes around.

Currently, Overwatch has 42 heroes. It’s a hefty roster, but Overwatch has also been out for almost a decade at this point. Marvel Rivals kicked off with 33 heroes at launch, with the Fantastic Four confirmed to be coming just a month after launch.

Considering that enough heroes have already been leaked for Marvel to overtake OW’s roster and 2025 just started, Rivals will best Blizzard’s hero shooter in terms of hero variety sooner rather than later.

In fact, Rivals is on a trajectory to beat Overwatch’s roster before the year is out if it keeps up the pace.

Marvel Rivals comes out swinging against Overwatch 2

There have been a lot of “Overwatch killers” since Blizzard’s hero shooter came out, none of which really stuck. Titles like Paladins and Concord didn’t have that level of staying power despite being in the hero shooter genre and trying to capture a similar audience.

Marvel Rivals is the first to have surpassed Overwatch in some ways and solidified itself as an actual contender. And, in terms of hero variety, they’re already knocking it out of the park.

Rivals launched with 33 heroes, Overwatch launched with 21. Rivals announced four heroes at once right after launch, while Overwatch has historically added heroes one at a time. There isn’t even a contest between the two.

What’s more, Rivals already has several heroes that are far along in development and are in good enough shape to be added to the game in the near future. Based solely on the leaks, there are already 9 additional heroes lined up past the Fantastic Four. This would bring the total Rivals roster up to 46.

If Overwatch keeps its pace of around 4 heroes a year, they’ll be tied with Marvel’s current leaked roster by the end of the year. But, if Rivals continues at a pace of 4 heroes per season and adds 16 new heroes before the year is out, they’ll easily beat Overwatch 2’s roster size in the first year of the game being out.

It’s worth mentioning that it is a bit easier to come up with new characters for NetEase. They’re working with a pool of hundreds of different heroes across decades of source material.

Additionally, more characters doesn’t necessarily mean that those heroes will be of a higher quality than what Overwatch is offering. Though he’s got some serious issues in terms of bugs, Hazard has been well-received as OW2’s latest character.