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Marvel RivalsIf you play Marvel Rivals on console and your best friend is on PC, the first question you both hit when you queue Competitive is the same one. Is Marvel Rivals ranked crossplay? The answer is halfway yes and halfway no, and the details decide whether you can actually climb together this season.
Is Marvel Rivals ranked crossplay? The short answer
Marvel Rivals does support crossplay, but the ranked ladder treats it like two separate games. Competitive queues players in one of two isolated pools. PC and Mac share one pool. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S share the other. Casual modes are the exception where the three platforms all meet, and cross-progression is not enabled anywhere.
That is a deliberate call from NetEase. Keyboard-and-mouse aim on a Duelist like Hela or Black Widow is not the same act as thumbstick aim with the built-in console aim assist, and mixing them in a scored ladder is a fairness problem the studio does not want to solve at Grandmaster and above. Valorant took the same call in the other direction by refusing crossplay entirely; Marvel Rivals compromised by allowing it in Quick Match only.
The two ranked pools, spelled out
When you press Compete, the matchmaker looks at your platform first and your MMR second. The pool you land in decides who you can face and who you can team with.
PC and Mac ranked pool
This is the pool with mouse-and-keyboard input by default. Steam and Epic Games clients share the queue. If you have a Steam friend and an Epic friend, you can duo or six-stack together in Competitive without doing anything special. The client you launched from does not matter.
This pool has the fastest queues at Diamond and above because it holds the largest concurrent population, and it has the sharpest aim ceiling because there is no aim assist. Console players sometimes plug a controller into PC to keep muscle memory; when they do, they play against mouse-and-keyboard opponents with no aim assist granted, which is why most controller-on-PC players drop back to console for ranked.
PlayStation and Xbox ranked pool
PS5 and Xbox Series X and S sit in one merged pool. A PS5 friend and an Xbox friend can queue Competitive together and climb the same ladder. Aim assist is on for both, which is how NetEase keeps the console side internally fair even though the two systems have slightly different stick response curves.
The Series S is in this pool too, but the frame-rate cap on Series S sometimes creates a soft ceiling in high-Eternity lobbies where PS5 Pro and Series X players run at higher framerates. It is not a matchmaking split, just a hardware note.
Why the ranked split exists
The reasoning NetEase and press outlets converge on is input parity. Two concrete facts back it:
- Aim assist on Duelist tracking (Hela, Punisher, Black Widow) closes a large fraction of the input gap in duels, but not all of it, and the residual gap grows with rank.
- Movement precision on Vanguards like Doctor Strange portal placement or Peni Parker mine snapping is easier with a mouse regardless of aim assist.
- Ability aim on Sorceress-type heroes (Scarlet Witch, Storm) rewards mouse flicks that a controller cannot reliably reproduce even with assist.
- Player feedback in season 0 alpha showed mixed lobbies felt one-sided at the top of the ladder, which is why the split shipped at launch and has stayed put through season 10.
Modes where crossplay is fully on
Casual play does mix everyone. The full crossplay modes are:
- Quick Match, the standard 6v6 unranked mode
- Conquest, the point-capture rotation
- Practice vs AI, useful when you are learning a new hero without pressure
- Custom Game, when the lobby is set to non-competitive rules
If your group has one PC player and two on PlayStation, this is where you all end up. It is also where duos and trios warm up before switching devices for their own ranked runs.
How to enable or disable crossplay
Crossplay is on by default across all three platforms. You can only opt out from the console side; PC has no toggle.
PlayStation 5
- Open Settings, then Users and Accounts
- Pick your account, then the Privacy tab
- Under Personal Info | Messaging, adjust Cross-Platform Play
- Note that turning it off removes you from Quick Match matches with PC and Xbox players; Competitive is unaffected because the console pool already excludes PC
Xbox Series X and S
- Open Settings, then Account
- Choose Privacy and Online Safety, then Xbox Privacy
- Open View Details and Customize, then Communication and Multiplayer
- Set You Can Join Cross-Network Play to Block if you want to opt out
PC (Steam and Epic Games)
There is no in-game or client-side toggle to disable crossplay on PC. You are permanently in the PC and Mac ranked pool and the mixed casual pool.
Cross-progression is a separate story
Even inside the same account ecosystem, Marvel Rivals does not carry progression between platforms. Skins bought on PS5 do not appear on PC. Battle pass tiers earned on Xbox do not credit on Steam. Ranked MMR is calculated per platform. The creative director has said cross-progression is being worked on but has not given a timeline, and season 10 shipped without it.
The practical implication for a returning player: pick the platform you plan to play on most and stick to it. Splitting a battle pass grind across PS5 and PC means you buy it twice and progress it half as fast on each side.
What the ranked split means for climbing
For solo queue, the split is invisible. You queue, you play, you climb. Where it bites is groups. A five-friend Discord that mixes PC and console cannot run a six-stack in Competitive; the best it can do is split into a PC trio and a console duo playing separately, or move everyone into Quick Match together for the night.
Content creators run into the same wall. A streamer on PC who wants to boost a console friend into Grandmaster cannot join their queue, which is one reason serious rank climbing services always ask which platform you play on before quoting a price.
When you want to skip the mixed-group problem entirely and get to your target rank on your own platform, an ElevateBoost Marvel Rivals rank boost keeps the account on the platform you actually play, done by a booster in the correct pool, so the MMR gains are earned in the same ladder you will keep queuing on afterwards.
How Marvel Rivals compares with Valorant and Overwatch
Marvel Rivals sits between the two big hero shooters on this question. The three approaches:
- Valorant: no crossplay at all, PC and console are entirely separate games with separate accounts and separate ranked ladders.
- Overwatch: full crossplay in Quick Play, and crossplay is allowed in Competitive except that a PC player in a group forces the whole group into the PC pool.
- Marvel Rivals: crossplay in casual, hard split in Competitive between PC-Mac and PlayStation-Xbox, no cross-progression.
The Marvel Rivals model is the middle ground. It preserves ranked integrity like Valorant does, but it does not force console friends to sit out casual play like Valorant does.