Marvel Rivals removed several game modes with the Winter event

Marvel Rivals received a big update on Thursday, December 18. NetEase released a winter event, adding another Jeff game mode, alongside new cosmetics. The video game developer also announced an upcoming Christmas event, from which you’ll be able to earn free Units. However, the update also removed a couple of game modes.

While the latest patch notes unveiled almost all the changes that arrived with the update, they did not specify anything about game mode removals. Due to this, many Marvel Rivals players thought that this was just a bug. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, as a couple of modes have been temporarily removed from the game.

Marvel Rivals will rotate Arcade modes in the future

After the December 18 update, Marvel Rivals has three Arcade modes: Free Fight, Conquest, and Doom Match. All the other Arcane modes have been removed in order to improve matchmaking health and shorten queue times.

This change doesn’t mean that the other modes, like Clone Rumble and Resource Rumble, have been permanently removed. NetEase will bring them back at some point, as Arcade modes will rotate out, likely with every major update. For now, the game creator will likely keep three of them active at a time, but we will get different ones in early 2026.

The good news is that the Annihilation mode was not removed. Not only is the 18v18 mode still in the game, but it’s also now a permanent mode. Thanks to this, you can join the chaotic fight anytime you want and level up your heroes to the Lord proficiency.

The latest update also brought back some of the rarest Marvel Rivals skins and turned Deadpool into a tank. The next one is scheduled for December 26, as we’re quickly approaching the New Year’s Eve event on the Times Square map.