Official Marvel Rivals stats show Mantis dominates, Magik is a sleeper hit, everyone loves Jeff even if he kind of sucks, and Black Widow is in the dumpster

As the Marvel Rivals Season 1 release date approaches, developer NetEase Games rolled out an official "Hero Hot List" collating hero pick rates and win rates across platforms and modes. Act surprised: Jeff the Land Shark is the most popular hero in quickplay. Now actually act surprised: he has the second-worst win rate across all modes.

Quickplay data is unified while competitive data is split between console and PC. Here are some standout stats from the quickplay win rates and pick rates:

• The top five most-picked heroes in quickplay are Jeff, Venom, Cloak & Dagger, Mantis, and Peni Parker
• Mantis and Peni Parker have the highest win rate overall, followed by Adam Warlock, Loki, and Thor. For all the Duelist complaints, with even the devs acknowledging their dominance in skirmishes, Strategists and Vanguards are the best-performing heroes.
• The highest win rate Duelists are Hela, Magik, and Namor, with Iron Fist close behind
• The only hero with a worse win rate than Jeff is Black Widow, who is the third least-popular hero by pick rate, ahead of Namor and Storm
• For her stunningly low 1.66% pick rate, Storm is closer to the middle of the pack with a 49.01% win rate, ahead of 11 other heroes

Marvel Rivals' competitive mode stats reveal a few different trends. However, one thing remains constant: Mantis is the highest win rate hero across all modes and platforms, with a nearly identical 55.2% competitive record on PC and 55.4% on console. But while she has the highest win rate, Mantis is only the third most-picked hero in competitive on both console and PC. Here are a few more highlights:

• On PC, the top five heroes by pick rate are Luna Snow, Cloak & Dagger, Mantis, Doctor Strange, and Peni Parker – again, all Strategists and Vanguards. The only Duelist in the top 10 is Hela.
• On console, the top five for pick rate is reordered to Cloak & Dagger, Peni Parker, Mantis, Doctor Strange, and finally Luna Snow
• The competitive win rate podium is a bit different. On PC, the top five heroes are Mantis, Hela, Loki, Magik, and Adam Warlock. On console, it's Mantis, Magik, Hela, Peni Parker, and Adam Warlock.
• For win rate, Peni Parker is actually ranked 7th, below Rocket Raccoon on PC, whereas console stats put Rocket Raccoon at 11th place below Loki, Black Panther, Thor, and Hulk
• Jeff is the 7th most-picked hero on PC and 6th on console, but has the second-worst win rate on both platforms; again, only ahead of Black Widow.
• Black Widow has the lowest win rate on PC and console, and it's not especially close. On console, she's nearly 7% behind Jeff, and on PC the gap is still over 3%.
• Magik is a bit of a sleeper hit. Her pick rate is just 4.02% on PC and 5.15% on console, but her win rate is 53.63% on PC and 54.89% on console. Compare this to Mantis, whose pick rate is 19.77% on PC and 18.81% on console. This puts her in the opposite extremes of both metrics.
• Black Panther is comparable with pick rates under 4% and win rates over 52% on both PC and console, as is Namor, with pick rates under 5% and win rates over 50%.

Twitch star Shroud argues Overwatch is "absolutely a much better game" than Marvel Rivals, and "people forget" how good it was at launch: "That game took over the world."