Marvel Rivals has quietly grown into a storage hog, pushing past 100GB after months of new heroes, events, and cosmetics. That changes with Season 9.5, which repackages the game’s assets to reclaim a large chunk of drive space on every platform.
Quick answer: Once you install Season 9.5, Marvel Rivals shrinks by roughly 40GB on PC and about 15GB on PS5 and Xbox Series S|X. The update itself downloads larger than a normal patch because it rebuilds the assets, but the final install is much smaller.
File size reduction by platform
Creative director Guangguang confirmed the storage cut in the latest Dev Vision update, arriving alongside the Season 9.5 launch on August 7, 2026. The savings depend on where you play.
| Platform | Approximate reduction |
|---|---|
| PC | Up to 40GB |
| PS5 | Around 15GB |
| Xbox Series S|X | Around 15GB |
PC players clearly get the bigger win here, but a 15GB drop on console is still meaningful when many players juggle several live-service games on a single drive.
Expect a larger download before the game gets smaller
There’s a catch worth knowing before you start the update. Because Season 9.5 completely repackages and replaces the in-game assets, the patch download and installation will be heavier than a typical seasonal update.
You’ll need some extra headroom on your SSD while the game reorganizes everything. Once the process finishes, the overall install shrinks to its new, smaller footprint. Guangguang framed this as a one-time cost for a permanent reduction, so the space you lose during installation comes back and then some.
Note: You’ll know the change worked when Marvel Rivals reports a smaller total install size in your platform’s storage menu after the update fully completes, not while it’s still downloading.
How the game got so big, and how NetEase cut it down
At launch, Marvel Rivals sat at a reasonable 50GB to 60GB depending on the platform. Steady content drops, seasonal events, and new characters pushed it well past 100GB over time.
NetEase tried trimming the fat before. Season 6 delivered a 15% file size reduction, but later content updates simply piled the space back on.
The Season 9.5 approach is different. NetEase overhauled its texture compression, which lets the studio pack the same assets into far less space. Guangguang says this comes with no loss in visual fidelity, so the game should look identical while taking up less room. Rebuilding the compression engine also aims to keep future updates from ballooning the install right back up.
What else arrives with Season 9.5
The storage cut is the headline change, but it ships as part of a broader mid-season update. Season 9.5 adds Parker Robbins, better known as The Hood, as the game’s newest Vanguard. He plays as a ranged tank, a fairly unusual role for the class.
The update also closes out the Marvel Rivals Summer event with a set of Swimsuit Special skins, plus a round of balance changes that includes a notable rework to Peni Parker’s Cyber-Web Snare. For most players, though, the reclaimed drive space will be the most immediately useful part of the patch when it goes live on August 7.
