Steam Says 85% Down, But Does Cross-Play Save Marvel Rivals?

Steam charts show a big slide. The superhero shooter spiked in January, then settled hard by October. My quick take, numbers alone do not tell the full story when a game runs on three platforms and mixes players across them.

What “85 percent down” really means on Steam

The number comes from public Steam data. The all time peak was 644,269 concurrent players on January 11, 2025, while recent weekly peaks have hovered around the high five to low six figures. A Forbes piece said the game “has lost 85 percent of its players in 10 months,” posted on October 12, 2025, and used Steam’s peak versus recent concurrents as its basis. Forbes analysis.

What this is: a comparison of the highest recorded peak to current peaks on Steam.
What it does: gives a quick, public signal of momentum on one platform.
Why it matters: publishers and players use Steam peaks as a shorthand for health.

How cross play changes the picture

Cross play is when PC, PlayStation, and Xbox players can match together. Marvel Rivals uses device pools to protect input parity, so PC queues with PC, and consoles queue with consoles, while some larger modes can pull from multiple pools. That means Steam numbers are only one slice of active players at any time.

What to know right now

• A shrinking Steam peak does not confirm a shrinking total player base across all platforms.

• Queue times and match quality depend on your device pool, playlist, and region.

• Weekend peaks, big patches, and events can swing numbers for a few days.

Cross progression and what it tells us

Cross progression links your purchases and progress across platforms. Marvel Rivals supports account linking across Steam, Epic, Loading Bay, PlayStation, and Xbox. Ranks and leaderboards are stored per device, so your PC rank and your console rank do not merge. This setup helps a player hop platforms without losing skins, while keeping fair ladders.

Why this matters for the data: when ranks and leaderboards live per device, movement between platforms will not show up as “growth” on Steam, even if total engagement across platforms is stable.

Console reality check

Sony and Microsoft do not publish live concurrent counts per game. Without official dashboards, we cannot verify PlayStation or Xbox peaks the way we can on Steam. The best we can do is infer from in game queues, playlist estimates, and publisher statements. Treat any hard console number you see online with caution unless it comes from the developer.

Content cadence, Daredevil, and ranked shifts

A live shooter breathes through updates. A mid season patch on October 10, 2025 added Daredevil, balance changes, and fresh missions. If you care about how that shook up ranked choices and team comps, I went deep on it here: Daredevil arrives in Marvel Rivals and ranked shifts fast. The short version, new heroes and tuning spikes can pull people back for a week or two, then numbers settle to the new baseline.

Near term catalyst, Marvel Zombies event

A Halloween PvE mode lands on October 23, 2025. Limited time modes usually give a short bump. PvE can also bring lapsed players back since it is lower pressure than ranked. Watch weekend peaks the first two Sundays after launch to see if the bump holds.

What this means for the next month

• Peak and median concurrents on Steam. Both the Sunday peak and weekday medians tell the story.

• Queue times by playlist and time of day. If you wait five minutes for a match, the pool is thin.

• Update cadence. Patches, new heroes, and events often map to short lifts.

• Cross play health. If PC feels slow, try a console pool if you have it, or swap playlists.

“Eighty five percent down” on Steam is accurate for the PC lens, backed by public charts and a mainstream report. Cross play, cross progression, and console pools mean the full audience could be larger than what Steam shows. The next updates will tell us if the baseline is still sliding or if events and new heroes can level it out.