Marvel Contest of Champions is a game that you can download on your mobile device and fight as your favorite Marvel Hero. With over 40 million downloads globally, this game is huge! And it might just give us some clues to upcoming Marvel Legends.
Whoa, Pabs! What the hell are you talking about? Well, let’s go back to the opening statement for a second. As of mid-2015, this game had over 40 million downloads and has earned up to 100 million dollars (source). The game was designed by Kabam, was released in late 2014, and, from a marketing perspective, has high visibility. Just to put that in context, the movie Captain America: Civil War grossed $1,152,424,932 worldwide. That breaks down as follows: Domestic ($8.61): $407,826,164; Foreign ($15): $744,598,768. In parenthesis I’ve added average ticket prices across both the U.S. and international markets based on numbers from a Google search. In San Antonio, Texas a movie will cost over 10 bucks a ticket. That means domestically in the U.S. 47,366,569 people saw Captain America: Civil War in 2016 (to date). Just as many people downloaded and at least tried Marvel Contest of Champions globally in the same amount of time. That’s pretty impressive for a game and it’s a huge marketing potential.
It’s especially impressive when games are still considered “kid fare.” In fact, the only reason I started playing was because I caught my kids playing it, so how many of those 40 million and growing are “kids”? Quite a few, I’d imagine. Of course, I got hooked immediately. After SDCC last year, I kinda put the idea of this game and Marvel Legends being tied together on the back burner. Until I noticed future character releases and Marvel Legends starting to align. Sure, it could be coincidence. I mean, the release of Marvel Legends Angela and the upcoming inclusion of Angela in Marvel Contest of Champions is just random, right? Same with Jessica Jones. You are correct — it is a correlation; there is no direct causation. After all, Netflix’s Daredevil appeared in the game, but we have no figure of him. And while there are multiple modern Visions in Marvel Legends, there is only classic and movie in Contest of Champions. But I do find it interesting that a number of the characters featured in the game have made it to toy form, especially ones like Colossus in a costume he wore briefly in 2008.
The game is pretty easy. It’s a button-mashing responsive fighting game. “Responsive” refers to swipe and tapping the touch screen of your mobile device in order to make moves. The fighting is set in the Battleworld of the Collector, Thanos, Kang, and others, and you use Marvel Characters to fight for dominance of Battleworld. The game is very linear and can get monotonous. The fun is in leveling-up your character, collecting all the characters, building and army of 1-,2-,3-,4-, or 5-star fighting teams. There are various attributes to upgrade and items to collect.
There is even PvP and co-op. Neither is live, but it still creates an online community, supported by a live chat, in-game messaging, and the ability to request help from other players. It’s not quite a MMORPG (Multi Media Online Role Playing Game), but it’s close enough.
The game is a clear success, 40 million downloads in half a year and 100 million dollars is no joke. There is continued development, new releases, tie-ins with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and even the comic universe. There are fighting themes related to Netflix, ABC, and movies; there are also themes related to the comic events. The game is such a success that there is a comic based on it. And if you think like I do, you might start seeing correlations between the game and Marvel Legends. After all, why the hell else would we be getting a Colossus costume from 2008?
