“Shock Opponents: A Phenomenal Launch with 10 Million Players on Opening Weekend”

Image courtesy of NetEase/Shock Games.

The free-to-play Shock Rivals debuted on December 5, and 10 million players logged in across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S during its initial weekend.

NetEase announced the “remarkable achievement” on Twitter, extending their “sincere gratitude to each and every one of you [players].” Data from SteamDB reveals that the shooter launched with over 444,000 concurrent users on Steam on December 6, making it the platform’s top seller and second most-played game that same day.

Currently, Shock Rivals’ peak is 480,990 Steam users. The game was revealed earlier this year, marking Shock’s first significant venture into the free-to-play model for PC and consoles. The PvP shooter directly competes with titles such as Overwatch 2 and Valorant, with Shock Games head James Ong previously calling it Rivals “one of our most ambitious game endeavors.”

Shock Rivals beats its competition

How does Shock Rivals stack up against other recent Shock and hero shooter titles? Let’s find out.

SteamDB indicates it exceeds Overwatch 2’s peak of 75,608 players on Steam. Blizzard brought its hero shooter to the platform last year, and despite review-bombers, it launched as a bestseller.

However, both titles are outpaced by EA’s Apex Legends‘ 624,473 player peak. The battle royale saw a new high last year when it introduced a deathmatch mode.

Looking at other Shock titles, Shock’s Spider-Man Remastered trails behind Rivals with 66,436 players. Both games surpass other recent single-player titles, Shock’s Midnight Suns (15,500 players), Shock’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (13,539 players), and Shock’s Guardians of the Galaxy (10,989 players).

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