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A big part of Marvel Rivals’ success among PC users is the thriving modding scene, where fans have let their imaginations run wild by turning characters like Iron Man into Vegeta from Dragon Ball or Jeff the Land Shark into Pochita from Chainsaw Man. These unique skins, which have been downloaded tens of thousands of times from sites like Nexus Mods, are a big part of the game’s dedicated fan base.
They combine Marvel’s famous characters with elements of pop culture. But with the Season 1 update Eternal Night Falls, which came out on January 10, 2025, NetEase added a controversial change by banning mods. By adding asset hash checking, the update stopped these fan-made modifications from working, which is in line with the game’s terms of service, which have always said that changes are not allowed.
The move by NetEase is meant to protect its income stream from selling premium skins, which are very important for the free-to-play game, while also stopping cheating and legal problems that could come up with copyrighted designs. However, the modding community is not giving up and still modders stand tall over NetEase’s stringent rules.
Marvel Rivals mods are more popular than ever despite NetEase ban
It’s been almost two months since NetEase banned modding in the game and started issuing bans to players, with some as serious as 100 years bans from the game entirely. Still, that did not stop fans as they are actively downloading and sharing new mods at a rate that has never been seen before—over 200 new mods came out just in the week after the patch.
Data on Nexus Mods site and Google Trends show players are actively looking for more mods. Image by VideoGamer.
Big Smoke as Punisher is one of the top downloaded mods in the game. Image by VideoGamer.
Furthermore, frequent updates to mods are being made on the Nexus Mods website with new ones releasing each day. In addition to the new mods, some of the most popular mods, like the FPS boost mod, that boosts framerates and overrides the native setting in-game, have over 200k downloads.
Another popular mod that converts Punisher into Big Smoke from GTA San Andreas till date has over 57k downloads. Even the latest Ultimate Spider-Man mod that was published on March 11, already has over 300 downloads.
Adding to this data, Google Trends is reporting over 140% search rate each day for the term Nexus Mods Marvel Rivals, which further proves that players are still actively searching for it. Even though NetEase has strict rules in place banning such mods completely, modders have once again defeated the devs by creating Mod Managers that bypass their asset hash checks. Far from stopping the trend, the ban has only deepened fans’ resolve to keep modding alive.
About the Author
Marvel Rivals
- Platform(s): macOS, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- Genre(s): Fighting, Shooter
