The Difference Between Marvel Rivals Season 6 and Overwatch 2 Season 21 is Going to Be Night and Day — and That’s Good News For Nobody
As a hero shooter fan, 2025 was an awesome year. Following a disappointing 2024 where Concord, a game I was personally enjoying, was killed before it even had a chance, both Marvel Rivals and Overwatch 2 had tremendous years. Marvel Rivals hit its stride, proving that it could deliver new content faster than any other hero shooter with monthly character drops and a surprise PvE experience out of nowhere. Overwatch 2 justified its existence with sweeping changes across the board; a lore codex, Progression 2.0, the perk system, and the spectacular Stadium mode all dropped in a matter of months. While 2026 will hopefully be similarly good for fans of both games, it does feel like one game will have a clear edge with the first season of the new year.
This is, obviously, not ideal. I’m somebody that plays both of these games equally, swapping between Overwatch 2 and Marvel Rivals every day so that I never get bored with either title. I’d imagine others have a similar approach, so the idea that one of these games is lined up to disappoint is concerning. Yet when looking at what has already been said about Marvel Rivals’ upcoming content, and the usual pattern for Overwatch 2, it’s a reasonable assumption that fans of the latter are in for a run-of-the-mill season. Hopefully, I’ll be wrong, but the signs are there. And if I’m right, and Overwatch 2 starts to stumble, that’s not good news, even for the most tribalistic of Marvel Rivals fans.
Why Marvel Rivals Season 6 is Shaping Up to Be Better Than Overwatch 2 Season 21
Marvel Rivals ended 2025 with a pretty bold promise that 2026 would blow its first full year on the market out of the water, with NetEase specifically calling Marvel Rivals’ first year a “warm-up.” It’s stated that more PvE content for those who fell in love with Marvel Zombies is on the way (offering something Overwatch 2 does not), while also telling players exactly who is coming in Season 6: Deadpool and Elsa Bloodstone. The Merc With a Mouth is easily the most popular character missing from Marvel Rivals, so his long overdue arrival is sure to lead to a gigantic increase in players. As for Elsa, she’s more niche, but Rivals managed to make Angela popular, so perhaps the sassy monster hunter will shine as well.
Deadpool’s role is currently a mystery, with the anti-hero switching categories weekly to mess with players. He’s now listed as a map, taking the fourth wall-breaking humor to another level.
Overwatch 2, on the other hand, will be fighting the arrival of Deadpool with a heroless Season of content. Because of both Overwatch 2’s high level of polish and its need to create characters from scratch as opposed to pulling from a massive comics canon, Team 4 can only release characters every other Season, meaning that Vendetta was the last character we’ll see for several months. This used to be balanced out by the “off-seasons” having new maps for the core game modes… but sadly, that hasn’t happened for some time now. The last new map for casual players was the Flashpoint arena Aatlis in June of last year, but competitive enjoyers like myself have been waiting for a new map since June 2024 when Runasapi came to the game. That’s a year and a half without another core map experience, and the pool has gotten very stale as a result.
As for why Overwatch 2 map additions dried up, the logical answer is that players pushing back against the Clash game mode is the culprit. Blizzard will have likely built multiple maps for Clash prior to giving up on the mode, which could have been released throughout 2025. Essentially, that work will have been wasted, setting Team 4 back and leaving the community without maps. Alternatively, perhaps Blizzard has seen the map voting data that indicates older maps are always chosen by fans, with this pushing the studio to quietly move away from new maps. Still, even if the map-hero-map-hero Season cycle is no more, a fresh map here and there is a must. Given how long it’s been for a new competitive map, though, there’s a real chance Season 21 has no new hero or map to offer, setting it up for failure.
Why Overwatch 2 Season 21 Potentially Being a Letdown Would Be Bad News For Everyone
Overwatch 2’s 21st Season could certainly surprise us, bringing a new map or an even bigger addition like Stadium out of nowhere. Personally, though, I’m worried, and all hero shooter fans should be — yes, even the biggest critics of Overwatch 2 who only enjoy Marvel Rivals. Competition benefits consumers and is crucial for quality content so that one side doesn’t get too comfortable; it’s why, despite being a PlayStation guy to my core, I’m not happy about it basically winning the console war. Much like I don’t want Xbox to keep fumbling, as that could see PlayStation making less of the games I like since it’s less pressured to get eyes on its hardware, Overwatch 2 falling off would allow NetEase to get complacent.
Some of the best things about Marvel Rivals are its free unlockables. This is one area where even the most diehard Overwatch 2 fan wouldn’t argue against Rivals doing better in, as while Overwatch 2 usually only gives out recolors for free in its events, Rivals has provided the following skins just for playing its game:
- Wasteland Ultron
- Iron Spider Spider-Man
- Symbiote The Thing
- Mrs. Barnes Black Widow
- Business Shark Jeff
- Blade Knight Blade
- Cuddly Fuzzlefin Jeff
- Flora Maiden Mantis
In a world where Marvel Rivals isn’t needing to keep up with a thriving Overwatch 2, maybe these jaw-dropping event skins become less common. Players surely would have paid for something like Iron Spider, after all, so we’re truly lucky we got to earn it instead. The same goes for the generous chrono-token events that let players gather free currency, or the paid mini-passes still containing free skins and items. With less competition, NetEase would have an easier time embracing controversial gacha mechanics like those tied to the recent Psylocke skin, or dropping less exciting freebies to earn. If a weak Season 21 did happen, and it was followed by more disappointing Seasons, Rivals could feel less pressured to go above and beyond, with changes begrudgingly accepted because gamers would say, “at least it’s not Overwatch.”
Obviously, this shouldn’t happen. Even if Overwatch 2 Season 21 does disappoint as much as I’m worried it will, Blizzard could right the ship with a content-filled Season 22 and reignite the rivalry. And outside Overwatch 2‘s recent China-exclusive event controversy, it’s been on a rule, so there’s reason to have faith that Blizzard is cooking up something cool behind the scenes. Still, if I’ve noticed that new maps have faded away and that Overwatch 2’s non-hero Seasons feel barren more often than not, NetEase surely has as well, and it could start letting its foot off the pedal when it knows those windows are approaching. Hopefully, Blizzard has a trick up its sleeve with Overwatch 2 Season 21, because Marvel Rivals is bringing out the big guns with Deadpool. And if both games aren’t thriving and actively pushing each other to do better, then all of their fans will be worse off for it.
- Released
-
August 10, 2023
- ESRB
-
T For Teen // Blood, Mild Language, Use of Tobacco, Violence