Marvel Rivals Cross-Progression: How to Link and Carry Progress

Cross-Progression vs Crossplay: Know the Difference

These two terms get mixed up constantly, so it is worth nailing down before you touch any settings. Crossplay means players on different platforms can be in the same lobby and the same match. Cross-progression means a single player's account data, such as unlocked heroes, cosmetics, currency, and battle pass progress, is shared across the platforms where they play.

You can have crossplay without ever linking anything, because matchmaking pools are shared by default. Cross-progression, on the other hand, only kicks in once you connect your platform accounts to one central game account. Until you do that, each platform effectively holds its own separate profile.

The payoff of getting cross-progression right is that you stop thinking about platforms as walls. Your progress becomes a single thing you carry everywhere, which is especially valuable in a live-service game where a battle pass and seasonal cosmetics represent real time and, sometimes, real money.

What Actually Carries Over Between Platforms

When cross-progression is active, the meaningful parts of your account travel with you. That includes your roster of unlocked heroes, the cosmetic skins and customization items you have earned or acquired, your account level and general progression, and your battle pass progress for the current season.

Earned in-game currency generally follows your linked account as well, so the coins or units you accumulate through play are available wherever you sign in. Your competitive rank and career stats are tied to your account, which is what lets you continue a ranked climb across sessions on different hardware.

There are sensible caveats. Purchases and entitlements can be governed by platform store rules, so premium currency bought on one storefront may have platform-specific handling even when your general progress is shared. This is common across the industry because each console and PC store manages paid transactions differently. If you care about a specific purchased item behaving identically everywhere, verify the current behavior in-game before assuming, since store policies evolve.

It is worth separating the two buckets in your head. Earned content, the heroes you unlocked through play, the cosmetics you grinded for, your level, rank, and battle pass tier, is the part cross-progression is designed to unify, and it is the part most players care about. Paid content bought with real money on a specific store is the part where platform rules can introduce nuance. For the vast majority of players who mostly earn their progress through play, cross-progression feels complete and seamless, and the store caveats rarely come up in day-to-day use.

Setting Up Cross-Progression Step by Step

The core idea is to link every platform you play on to the same game account. Start on the platform where your progress currently lives, the one you have invested the most time in, so it becomes the anchor.

Open the game's account or settings menu and look for the account linking option. You will typically be given a code or a web link that directs you to an official linking page in your browser. Sign in there with the central game account you want everything tied to, and confirm the link for the platform you are currently on.

Then repeat the process on your other platforms. On each additional device, go to the same linking option, and connect it to that same central account. Once every platform points at one account, launching the game on any of them should load your shared progression. The first time you do this, log in slowly and read each confirmation screen, because linking to the wrong central account is the mistake that causes the most cleanup later.

Choosing Which Account Becomes Your Anchor

The single most important decision in this whole process is picking the right anchor account, because that is the profile whose progress everyone rallies around. If you have been playing for months on PS5 and only just installed the game on PC, you want your PS5 progress to be the surviving data, not a fresh PC profile.

Before you link anything, take stock of where your best inventory lives. Check hero unlocks, cosmetics, battle pass tier, and rank on each platform. Link that richest platform first and treat its associated game account as the master. Bring the emptier platforms into that account afterward.

Be deliberate, because merging behavior and overwrite rules differ from game to game, and getting it wrong can mean a less-populated profile becomes the one you are stuck with. When in doubt, do not rush the second link until you are certain which account you are joining. A couple of minutes of double-checking here prevents the kind of loss that support tickets are made of.

Common Cross-Progression Issues and Fixes

The most frequent problem is progress that does not appear after linking. Usually this means you linked a platform to a brand-new empty account rather than your anchor. Recheck which central account each platform is connected to in the account menu, and make sure they all match the anchor you intended.

Another common snag is a linking code that expires. These codes are time-sensitive, so if you got distracted mid-process, generate a fresh code and complete the browser step promptly. Sign-in loops usually clear up by fully closing the browser tab, restarting the game client, and trying the link again on a stable connection.

If a specific purchased item is missing on one platform, remember the store-policy caveat: paid entitlements can be handled per storefront even when general progress syncs. That is different from a linking failure. For anything that looks like genuine account data loss rather than a store quirk, stop making further changes so you do not compound the problem, and consult the official support channels with your account details.

Why Cross-Progression Is Worth Setting Up Early

It is tempting to postpone linking until you feel like you have real progress worth protecting, but the opposite approach saves headaches. Linking early, ideally before you have parallel progress on two platforms, means you never face a difficult merge decision because everything grows on one account from the start.

The practical benefit shows up the first time your schedule changes. Maybe you travel and only have a laptop, or your console is occupied by someone else in the house and you shift to PC. With cross-progression already active, you pick up exactly where you left off, same heroes, same skins, same battle pass tier, no restart.

For players who like variety nights, such as random-hero challenges or trying off-meta comps, a single shared account also means the cosmetics and unlocks you enjoy showing off are always with you. Set it up once, verify it works by launching on a second platform, and then forget about it while it quietly keeps your progress unified.

There is a subtler benefit too: linking early protects the value of your time. In a live-service game, a battle pass and its seasonal rewards represent hours of play, and having them locked to one platform is a quiet risk if your hardware ever changes. Maybe your console breaks, maybe you build a new PC, maybe you simply switch where you game. With cross-progression already in place, none of those events threaten your investment, because your account, not your hardware, is what holds everything. Treating the link as basic account hygiene, done on day one, is the mindset that keeps you from ever facing a painful merge or a lost season.

A Quick Pre-Link Checklist

Before you begin, run through a short mental checklist so the process goes smoothly. Confirm which platform holds your most valuable progress and designate it as the anchor. Make sure you know the credentials for the central game account you plan to use, and that you can access the email tied to it in case a verification step appears.

Ensure each platform's game client is fully updated, since an outdated build can complicate account features. Have a stable internet connection for the browser linking step, and give yourself a few uninterrupted minutes so a code does not expire while you are away.

Finally, after you finish linking all platforms, do a real-world test: close the game everywhere, then launch on a platform other than your anchor and confirm your heroes, cosmetics, and battle pass tier all appear. That verification is the difference between assuming cross-progression is working and actually knowing it is.