Marvel Rivals: Building Community from Day One

The Challenge

Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play PVP shooter game featuring beloved Marvel superheroes, was launching into a competitive corner of the video games universe. With a strong gameplay foundation and backed by a globally loved IP, NetEase Games knew activating that community would be a critical part of the game’s success. Our challenge was to build early momentum and emotional engagement with fans through authentic storytelling and social presence, tailored to Marvel’s expansive lore.

Key Deliverables

• Strategic Community Management across X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok
• Social channel setup, moderation, and audience engagement
• Pre-launch and launch campaign planning and execution
• Daily content publishing, platform-specific engagement, and trend monitoring
• Fan support via direct messages and comment moderation
• Community giveaways, competitions, and reward programs
• Reporting, insights, and feedback loop to development teams

The Solution

Our community management team partnered with NetEase Games to create an engaging social media experience for Marvel Rivals, managing platforms including X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. We fuelled excitement and built a passionate community that thrived from when the game debuted on social to the official game launch and beyond.

As part of the warm-up to the launch of Marvel Rivals, we kicked off an exciting countdown campaign that highlighted each superhero from the roster, alongside their costumes inspired by Marvel’s iconic movies, comics, and TV series. By focusing on engaging, story-driven content, we aimed to deepen fans’ emotional connection to the Marvel universe in-game with immersive lore. 

To keep the community engaged, cinematic trailers, collaborations with Twitch streamers, and developer talks were planned to generate as many talking points as possible. As excitement grew, we added layers of interaction with giveaways, sending Marvel IP merchandise, vinyls of game soundtracks, and game artbooks around the world to winners. The heartfelt messages of gratitude we received from fans through DMs highlighted the positive impact of these initiatives.

This combination of storytelling, creator partnership, and meaningful rewards created a vibrant inline community primed to rally around the launch.

Results

The game attracted 10 million players within 72 hours of launch. Social platforms experienced an impressive 32.5% average growth in followers and an average of 7.5% engagement rate of our content shared across all platforms. The Rivals’ Til the End launch trailer, featuring Chrissy Costanza, garnered over 10 million impressions and 340K engagements. 

Marvel Rivals became one of the most discussed and played titles during the 2024 holiday season – highlighting the success of a well-executed content and engagement strategy. 

Moving forward, we’re excited to continue supporting our client and the Marvel Rivals community on social media, ensuring it remains a place where players feel connected, valued and engaged. 

Join us to Ignite the Battle! 

Image source: Marvel Rivals