Marvel Rivals rolled out Season 9.5 on August 7, 2026, adding The Hood as a new playable hero and introducing a Pick Your Own bundle format for the in-game store. The official patch notes from developer NetEase Games say the update begins at 09:00 UTC with about two hours of maintenance, framing the mid-season drop with the line “Desire is the prologue to power, and the precipice of corruption.”
The new season event, called Creed of Akabba, runs alongside the update and gives away The Punisher’s Sandstorm Soldier costume to anyone who completes its missions, with some premium rewards also purchasable with Units. The patch also turns the in-game Times Square into a Captain America: The Winter Soldier screening room from August 7 to August 27, where watching the movie clips for two minutes unlocks an exclusive spray, and a fresh round of Twitch Drops runs from August 7 through September 4, headlined by the Elsa Bloodstone “Will of Galacta” costume.
The Hood is the headline of the update. The patch notes describe the character as dark magic meeting street hustle, and his arrival comes with a new lore entry, “Carved in Stone,” alongside a Moon Knight story called “Faces of the Moon.” A wave of store items for the hero goes live on the same August 7 schedule, including the Sinful Blackout bundle, the Oblivion’s Whisper piece, an emoji bundle, and a Madrecita Plush accessory.
The store itself gets a new presentation with the PYO format. Players pick which costumes and Emote Emojis go into a bundle and the price adjusts to the selection, with NetEase saying the adaptive price stays the same as the previous standard bundles for equivalent content. The first three new store costumes of the week roll out this way, joined by the Furious Flow bundle for Iron Fist and the Fist of Khonshu bundle for Moon Knight.
Beyond new content, the update shrinks installs. NetEase says a new texture compression strategy reduces the hard drive footprint after installation by roughly 30 percent on PC, 20 percent on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, and 7 percent on PlayStation 4. Bug fixes in the same patch cover heroes including Peni Parker, Rocket Raccoon, Cloak & Dagger, and Namor, plus map fixes on Thebes and Times Square.
Season 9.5 continues The Mystery of Thebes, the arc that opened Season 9 in July with a new hero and a slate of Avengers-themed events. Marvel Rivals is free to play on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PS4, and NetEase has kept up a roughly weekly patch cadence through the summer, with a balance post ahead of this update adjusting heroes including Wolverine, Moon Knight, and Peni Parker.
The Marvel-licensed competitive space has had a busy stretch, and Season 9.5 lands a few weeks after the Marvel Tokon open beta reached PC late last month. Both games are leaning on frequent updates to hold attention, though Marvel Rivals is the one shipping new heroes and store formats on this schedule.
For players, the practical dates are: Season 9.5 and its store items go live August 7 at 09:00 UTC, the Creed of Akabba event and the Times Square screening run into late August, and the Twitch Drops close on September 4. NetEase says more surprises are planned for the rest of Season 9.5.
