Thanks to the release of a brand-new fanmade mod, Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite has gotten a big player boost on Steam. Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite is a crossover fighting game that once again pits Marvel Comics' superheroes against some of Capcom's legendary figures. While the return of the iconic crossover franchise was greatly anticipated, Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite was fraught with a very troubled development.

Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite's roster was limited to certain Marvel characters who were already iconic or were set to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with certain Fox-owned characters like the X-Men being outright barred. Due to a limited budget, Capcom's characters were mostly recycled from Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 too. The biggest criticism, however, was the lack of a unified art direction, which, while it looked mostly realistic, made the game feel bland in the eyes of many fans. As a result, Infinite didn't see the same success as its prior entries did. However, there were many fans who felt the game still held potential, as seen with the recently released Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite & Beyond fanmade mod.

The Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite & Beyond mod replaced the art style of the original game with a more striking cel-shaded look, along with updating its gameplay. Thanks to the Infinite & Beyond mod's launch, MvCI itself is seeing a huge spike in player growth, as cataloged by SteamDB. Data shows that ever since February 2018, the game has only averaged out at 50 players on the PC version, with a peak number of 3600 players back when it first launched. Recent data from SteamDB saw that following the launch of the Beyond mod, the player count has increased to around 1322 peak players.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite went from averaging 15 players all year to more than 66x times that amount within hours of the #MvCIB mod launching.

Interested to see what these numbers look like over the weekend. pic.twitter.com/z7aBtjHoj8

— Tyler (@HaHaChatham) December 21, 2024

Based on the recent spike compared to the game's average since its original launch, that's a 2167% increase, one of the biggest increases for an older fighting game. Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite had impressive gameplay but had too many shortcomings, which led to the competitive scene essentially flopping after support was dropped. Fans are likely to enjoy the recent visual and gameplay overhaul the Infinite & Beyond mod provides.

Since Infinite & Beyond is a free fanmade mod, players looking to try it out will need a copy of the game. Currently, Steam is selling Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite and other Capcom games at a huge discount. Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite is 80% off of its normal $40 price, meaning it costs roughly $8 during Capcom's Holiday Deals, making it quite the apt time to get into the game and try the mod out.

Posted: 14 hours, 59 minutes ago
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://gamerant.com/marvel-vs-capcom-infinite-player-count-spike-why/