The developers of Marvel Rivals were surprised that the game was a massive hit. When season 1 launched last month, it attracted over 640,000 concurrent players on Steam. However, NetEase’s financial results on Thursday have revealed how much of a hit the game has been.
NetEase revealed that the hero shooter held the top spot on Steam’s global sellers’ charts in December and engaged 10 million registered users in the first three days across all platforms. After leaving briefly, it returned to the top of the chart in January after the launch of season 1.
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Also revealed in the financial results is that games and related services earned NetEase RMB21.2 billion (approx. $2.9 billion) in the first three months of the 2025 fiscal year ended December 31, 2024. This figure represented a 1.5% jump compared to the same time last year.
The positive financial results are coming on the heels of a major layoff of its Seattle-based development team. The development was first shared by Thaddeus Sasser who was the game director in the Seattle studio.
NetEase has since confirmed the layoffs calling it “a difficult decision to adjust Marvel Rivals’ development team structure for organizational reasons and to optimize development efficiency for the game.”
It was an unexpected layoff that sparked several rumors including claims that the company was exiting the North American market. Others claimed they simply used American developers to gain access to the American market.
While mass layoffs have been an almost constant monthly affair since 2023, it usually happens after a major game flop. Dumping a team after a successful launch is an unusual decision. While NetEase may claim the decision is to make the development of Marvel Rivals more efficient, it is hard to believe that cost-saving didn’t play a role in that decision.
