LeBron James fights Batman in record-breaking game

Fighting game is pitting LeBron James, Bugs Bunny, Batman, and Arya Stark from Game of Thrones against each other.

MultiVersus. Picture: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

MultiVersus, a Smash Bros-style platform fighting game by Warner Bros, is breaking records for concurrent players on PC — and it isn’t even out of beta yet, with an all-time peak of nearly 62,000 players.

Ever wonder who would win in a fight between Batman and Bugs Bunny? Wonder no more — MultiVersus is here to answer that question, and more, with its Smash Bros-inspired gameplay. The game features characters such as LeBron James, Shaggy from Scooby Doo, Bugs Bunny, and even Arya Stark from Game of Thrones leaping, spinning, and yes, smashing their way across a number of stages inspired by their worlds.

LeBron James is the latest MultiVersus character to be revealed ahead of the game’ July 26 open beta launch. Picture: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

MultiVersus isn’t available fully yet, as you can only play it on PC if you were in the original alpha testing phases, a competitor at a yearly gaming event named Evo, or if you purchase a Founder’s Pack via Steam.

This means that MultiVersus has broken records despite not being freely available, which is an incredible feat for any fighting game. The only two games that come close to MultiVersus’ numbers are Brawlhalla, a similar game that has been out for years, and Tekken 7, which isn’t free and also has been out for several years.

MultiVersus does enter open beta this week, and with the success it has seen so far, it’s safe to assume that the records will only keep getting bigger. It marks a new entry in fighting game history — as a free-to-play title with corporate brand power, it will be one of only a handful of games-as-a-service fighting games to eschew the standard convention of selling for retail price on launch.

Heavy hitters in the fighting game space have seen a decline in numbers on the PC platform — Street Fighter 5, for example, only had an all-time peak of just under 14,000 players total, while Dragon Ball FighterZ claimed a peak of nearly 45,000 at one time. That number, however, has fallen down to a monthly average of only 1,633 players. Finally, previous fan-favourite Nickolodeon All-Star Brawl has only seen an average of 30 players this past month, despite posting an all-time peak of 9,000 players.

Original reporting by Event Hubs.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.