How to Add Friends in Marvel Rivals

Marvel Rivals brings together teams of superheroes and villains in fast-paced 6v6 battles — and like most modern multiplayer games, it's built around playing with people you know. Whether you want to squad up with someone you just had a great match with or coordinate with friends before jumping into competitive play, understanding how the friend system works will save you a lot of frustration.

Where the Friend System Lives

Marvel Rivals uses its own in-game social system that operates through your NetEase account, which serves as the backbone for the game's social features regardless of platform. When you log in, your social hub is accessible from the main lobby screen via the Friends icon — typically found in the bottom toolbar or the top-right area depending on your UI layout.

From there, you can:

• Send and receive friend requests
• View pending requests
• See which friends are currently online or in a match
• Invite friends directly to your party

The interface is fairly straightforward, but there are a few layers worth understanding before you start searching for people.

How to Send a Friend Request 👥

To add someone as a friend, you need either their Marvel Rivals display name or their unique player ID. Here's how the process works:

1. Open the Social or Friends menu from the main lobby
2. Select Add Friend or the search/magnifying glass option
3. Enter the player's exact display name or numeric ID
4. Send the request — they'll receive a notification and can accept or decline

If you're searching by display name, keep in mind that names are not always unique across the player base. The game typically appends a number tag (similar to how Battle.net or Discord handles this) to differentiate accounts. If you're adding someone specific, asking them for their full tag beforehand avoids confusion.

You can also send a friend request directly from a match. Click on a player's name in the scoreboard or post-match screen, open their profile card, and select Add Friend. This is often the fastest method when you've just played with someone you want to stay in touch with.

Cross-Platform Friending

Marvel Rivals supports crossplay between PC and consoles, which means you can add and play with friends regardless of whether they're on PlayStation, Xbox, or PC via Steam or the Epic Games Store. The friend system is tied to the NetEase/Marvel Rivals account layer, not to the underlying platform's native friends list (PSN, Xbox Live, Steam, etc.).

This matters because:

• You don't need to be Steam friends to play together in Marvel Rivals
• You do need to be in-game friends or share a lobby link to invite someone across platforms
• Console players connecting their accounts will search and add friends through the same in-game interface

One variable here is whether a player has enabled cross-platform visibility in their privacy settings. If someone has restricted their profile, your request may not go through or their account may not appear in search results.

Inviting Friends to Your Party

Once someone is on your friends list and online, inviting them is simple:

1. Open the Friends panel
2. Find the friend who shows as online or in lobby
3. Select Invite to Party

Party size in Marvel Rivals supports up to 6 players for a full team, which means you can potentially queue with a coordinated premade squad. Keep in mind that larger premade groups may face different matchmaking dynamics than solo or duo queues — this is especially relevant in ranked modes where matchmaking algorithms try to account for team coordination levels.

If a friend is already in a match, you can often set your status to "Join When Available" or wait for them to return to lobby before the invite becomes active.

Privacy Settings and Why Requests Sometimes Fail

If you send a request and it never shows up on the other end — or if you can't find someone at all — privacy settings are usually the cause. Marvel Rivals gives players control over:

• Who can send friend requests (everyone, friends of friends, or no one)
• Who can see your online status
• Whether your profile is searchable

These settings are found in the Account or Privacy section of the settings menu. If you're having trouble adding someone, ask them to check their privacy settings or to send you the request instead.

Platform-Specific Nuances

What differs between platforms is how you access the overlay and whether platform-native popups (like the Steam overlay) interfere with in-game menus. Most players report the in-game friend system works consistently once the account is properly linked, but platform-specific overlays or notification systems can occasionally cause UI conflicts.

A Few Things That Vary by Setup 🎮

The friend-adding process itself is fairly universal, but how smooth it feels in practice depends on some individual factors:

• Account linking status — if your platform account isn't fully linked to your NetEase/Marvel Rivals account, social features may be limited
• Region settings — some players report search results being filtered by region; adjusting your region in-game settings can help if someone doesn't appear
• Display name accuracy — even one wrong character or a missing number tag means the search returns nothing
• Platform update state — friend system bugs have appeared in patches; keeping the game updated reduces the chance of running into known social feature issues

How well the system works for you often comes down to what platform you're on, whether crossplay is involved, and how your account was initially set up.