All 53 heroes unlock for free, and Marvel Rivals sells you costumes instead

A free game has held a place on Steam’s global top sellers chart for 91 weeks. On 3 September 2026 Marvel Rivals sat at number 34 on that chart[1], with concurrent players in the low sixty thousands and a daily peak near 89,000[2]. A game that costs nothing to install does not stay on a revenue chart for that long unless the people who installed it go on to pay.

What they pay for takes up half of this review. Heroes are not the answer. The official site says in its own description that all heroes are free to unlock[3], and the storefront sells costumes, sprays and a pass that reopens every season[4].

Six against six, and 53 names to pick from

Marvel Rivals is a shooter in which two teams of six fight using Marvel characters. The Steam page describes it as a super hero team-based PVP shooter[4]. In a hero shooter you choose a character rather than a weapon, and because abilities are attached to the character, the pick you make is the job you take for that match.

The roster held 53 playable heroes on the official hero page on 3 September 2026[3]. Villains sit in the same list as heroes, with Magneto alongside Spider-Man and Black Panther[4]. The most recent arrival, The Hood, was added with Season 9.5, which began at 09:00 UTC on 7 August[5].

Team-up abilities are the part worth understanding before the first match. Certain pairs of characters unlock a move they perform together, and the examples on the store page are literal: Rocket Raccoon rides on Groot’s back and fires from there, and Hulk pushes gamma energy into Iron Man’s suit to charge it[4]. Aim decides individual fights, and the roster you assemble around yourself decides most of the rest.

The stages take part in this too. Locations run from Asgard to Tokyo in 2099, and powers can break terrain or rebuild it, which means a player can manufacture cover where the map did not provide any[4].

Seventy gigabytes and the first few matches

The number to check before installing is 70GB of storage[4]. The minimum specification asks for Windows 10 64-bit, 16GB of RAM and a GeForce GTX 1060, the recommended card is a GeForce RTX 2060, and NetEase adds a line on the store page recommending an SSD[4].

The first few hours go into finding two or three heroes out of 53 that suit your hands. Since the abilities travel with the character rather than the gun, adjusting means switching people. The second thing that takes time is learning to wait: because team-ups only exist between set pairs, experienced players read the lobby before locking anything in.

Friends on other machines are not a problem. Cross-platform multiplayer appears in the feature list on the Steam page, so PC and console players share the same match, and controller support is listed as full[4].

Lattice arrives in six sizes

The paid currency is called Lattice. The Xbox listing states that Lattice buys battle passes in game and unlocks costumes, sprays and other cosmetic items in the store[6].

Six bundles exist. The three smaller ones are 100 Lattice for $0.99, 500 for $4.99 and 1,000 for $9.99. The three larger ones are 2,180 for $19.99, 5,680 for $49.99 and 11,680 for $99.99[7].

Divide those by unit and the bonus becomes visible. The smallest bundle prices one Lattice at just under a cent. From the $19.99 tier upward the extras start, 180 then 680 then 1,680, and the top bundle brings the unit price down about 14 percent below the smallest one. The same costume therefore costs less to a player who spends $99.99 at once, which is the shape of a pricing table built to move buyers toward the large end.

The seasonal pass renews with each season, and official season posts for Seasons 7 through 9 each describe ten brand new costumes inside it[3]. What the pass costs in Lattice appears only in the in-game store, and no primary source confirmed that figure as of 3 September 2026, so the sensible order is to open the store and read the number before buying any bundle.

A route that skips payment does exist. Season event missions award Units and Chrono Tokens[5], a free currency separate from Lattice. Beyond bundles, both the Xbox and PlayStation storefronts list a Pick-Up Bundle at $2.99, and the PlayStation page carries two free add-ons alongside it[7].

The rating line names random items, and no page names the odds

The heaviest fact about payment sits in the age rating. The US Xbox listing carries an ESRB rating of TEEN with the descriptors Users Interact and In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items), and the Korean listing states the same thing in its own wording[6].

No page publishes the probabilities. The news index on the global official site turns up nothing[3], and 60 recent official Steam announcements contain no disclosure either. This review therefore records that random items exist and leaves the numbers blank. A player who wants to know the chance of pulling a given cosmetic before paying is, as of 3 September 2026, paying without it.

Japan is where the payment terms are written down. The notice published under the Payment Services Act states that the paid currency has no expiry date, that a purchase cannot be cancelled at the user’s convenience once completed, and that at least 50 percent of the unused balance is held on deposit[8]. Monthly spending caps follow age: 5,000 yen under 16, 20,000 yen from 16 to under 18, and no cap at 18 and over[8]. One caveat belongs with that document. It calls the currency Crystal rather than Lattice, so read it for the terms rather than for the name.

Accounts are the other thing to check before spending. The Korean FAQ says cross-play works while accounts and cosmetics remain separate per platform[9]. That FAQ is dated 6 December 2024 and no revision to it turned up, which matters to anyone planning to buy a costume on PC and wear it on a console.

Reasons to clear the space tonight, and reasons not to

The game suits players who already know these characters, who like choosing a person rather than a weapon, and who can spend an evening inside a result that five other people share. Since every hero unlocks for free, a new account can try all 53 without a single charge[3].

It does not suit everyone. A phone is not an option, because the official download page lists three routes on Windows, Steam, Epic Games and the NetEase launcher, along with PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and Xbox Series X|S, with no Switch or mobile build[3]. Nor does it suit anyone who cannot spare 70GB, or anyone who resents losing a match because of teammates they did not choose.

The practical next step is to install it, play a handful of matches and leave the Lattice decision until afterwards. The question that remains open is the one the rating line raises. A storefront that flags random items still publishes no probability for them, and nothing on any official page indicates when that will change.

Sources

[1] Valve. Steam global top sellers. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[2] Valve. Steam current player count for app 2767030. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[3] NetEase Games. Marvel Rivals official site. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[4] Valve. Marvel Rivals on Steam. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[5] NetEase Games. Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 patch notes. August 2026.

[6] Microsoft. Marvel Rivals on the Xbox store. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[7] Sony Interactive Entertainment. Marvel Rivals on the PlayStation Store. Accessed 3 September 2026.

[8] NetEase Entertainment. Notice under the Payment Services Act. Marvel Rivals Japanese official site, 6 November 2024.

[9] NetEase Games. Marvel Rivals Korean official site. Accessed 3 September 2026.