Both big hero shooters add a new character this week. The Hood joins Marvel Rivals on 7 August, and D.Mon arrives in Overwatch on 11 August. So we counted what players have actually been writing. The Overwatch and Marvel Rivals reviews are heading in opposite directions.
We read the most recent 1,000 English language Steam reviews for each game and compared them against each game’s all time English score. Same language on both sides, so the comparison is like for like.
What the Overwatch and Marvel Rivals reviews actually show
Overwatch is recovering. Its last 1,000 English reviews, covering 26 July to 4 August, run 54.8 percent positive. Its all time English score sits at 40.4 percent, from 66,720 positive out of 165,317. That is a gap of 14.4 points.
Marvel Rivals is doing the reverse. Its last 1,000, covering 30 July to 4 August, run 63.7 percent positive. The all time English score is 77.1 percent, from 226,117 positive out of 293,327. That is 13.4 points the wrong way.
Read plainly, Marvel Rivals is still the better reviewed game today. It is simply falling toward Overwatch rather than pulling away. Overwatch, meanwhile, is writing its best reviews in a long time and still sits below its rival.
One thing worth noting before anyone dismisses this as noise. These are not drive by reviews. The median Overwatch reviewer had played 80 hours before writing. For Marvel Rivals it was 72 hours. Under two hours played, the figures are 4 percent and 2 percent.
Both studios are answering a question players did not ask
Here is the part that makes the timing awkward.
We sorted every negative review by what it complains about. In Overwatch, matchmaking leads at 12 percent of negative reviews. Balance follows at 8 percent, monetisation at 6. In Marvel Rivals, matchmaking and balance tie at 11 percent each, then story and performance at 8 apiece.
Now the number that matters. Tank and hero related complaints account for just 2 percent of negative reviews in both games.
So the loudest grievance across two rival shooters, from people with seventy hours in, is that matches are not put together well. Both studios respond this week with a new character. A hero is the most visible thing a live game can ship. It is not what these players are asking for.
To be fair to both, matchmaking work is invisible and a hero is not, and studios ship what they can show. The mismatch is still worth naming.
Why the Overwatch and Marvel Rivals reviews gap matters
Overwatch spent 2026 rebuilding itself. Blizzard dropped the 2 from the name, reworked how seasonal story content arrives, and committed to ten new heroes across the year. The recent numbers suggest that work is landing with the people still playing.
Marvel Rivals is in a different phase. It arrived in December 2024 to enormous goodwill. This is the first stretch where fresh reviews run meaningfully worse than the lifetime average. That is normal for a live game entering its second year, though the direction has changed.
We compared the two games on their design and feature sets earlier this year. This is the version the players are voting on, and the verdict has shifted since.
A word on method, because the numbers only mean something if you can check them. We pulled the most recent 1,000 English reviews per game from Steam’s public data endpoint on 5 August. We then sorted them by whether the writer recommended the game, and counted keyword matches inside each negative review. Topic counts undercount, since a reviewer can be annoyed about matchmaking without using the word. A thousand reviews is also a snapshot rather than a verdict, and Steam scores move.
What it does show is direction, and the direction of these two games is no longer the same. If you want the fuller picture on the incoming characters, our pieces on how Marvel Rivals team ups work and the Overwatch competitive scene cover where each roster stands.
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