The new best Marvel Rivals hero is a surprise due to stats

NetEase Games kicked off Marvel Rivals Season 1 in January with significant hero balance adjustments, aiming to revitalize underplayed characters like Storm and Black Widow. The changes proved highly effective, particularly for Storm. Following the updates, Storm's popularity and effectiveness soared. Rivals Meta now ranks her number one in win rate—a dramatic climb from her previous obscurity.

In competitive play, Storm boasts a win rate exceeding 56% and a pick rate of 16%, a remarkable turnaround from her near-zero presence before the update. She's now outperforming established favorites like Adam Warlock, Jeff, Spider-Man, Hela, Hulk, Magik, and Iron Man.

While Storm's rise is undeniable, the Cloak and Dagger duo remains the most popular character pairing in Season 1, although their win rate has dipped below 49%. Black Widow, however, continues to lag behind as the least popular and least successful character.

Marvel Rivals is experiencing considerable growth, with hundreds of thousands of players engaging in its competitive mode. The Grandmaster title remains an exclusive achievement, attainable by only 0.1% of players, despite the existence of the Celestial rank.

Reaching Grandmaster is challenging, but one player achieved the extraordinary feat of attaining Grandmaster rank in Season 1 without suffering a single point of damage across 108 games. This player focused solely on healing teammates while playing as Rocket Raccoon, accumulating over 2.9 million health points restored and nearly 3,500 assists—all without a single knockout.