Valve’s shiny new toy Deadlock is thriving, but at a potential cost to the developer’s darling

Valve opened the gates to new players in August to finally test Deadlock, the new third-person MOBA-shooter the developer had been working toward for many years—and it appears the exciting game is making Dota 2 players abandon ship.

Deadlock was initially closed to the public, available only to a few thousand players. However, with Valve allowing existing players to invite their friends, the game quickly eclipsed 150,000 concurrent players in September. On the other hand, Dota 2’s player count has been on a downward spiral, dropping below 600,000; the game’s lowest player count in well over a year. While Dota 2’s player base has been declining since May, the drop has visibly accelerated with Deadlock’s growing popularity—especially among popular streamers like Shroud and AverageJonas.

Many players raised their concerns this week through several posts on Dota 2’s subreddit, questioning whether the game will slowly be abandoned because of Deadlock. Few players admitted being completely pulled away by the new game; however, many believe the two entirely different MOBAs can coexist comfortably. Dota 2 offers a traditional MOBA experience, letting you control your character by right-clicking on the map with three lanes. On the other hand, Deadlock allows you to move around on the four lanes using your keyboard (with W, A, S, and D) and damage enemy targets by using your weapon and abilities, similar to any shooter.

Despite similar games like Heroes of the Storm, Smite, and Pokemon Unite releasing in the last decade, Dota 2‘s maintained a firm grip over its player base. Historically, Dota 2’s player count peaked yearly when The International’s battle pass dropped, letting players grind levels to unlock many rewards by playing the game, with the most elusive rewards (Arcanas) tied to higher levels.

Valve moved from the battle pass system to focus on gameplay updates instead of skins recently though, replacing it with the Compendium in 2023. The players evidently have no interest in grinding for Compendium rewards (without skins), resulting in TI’s pool (crowdfunded with in-game sales) dropping from tens of millions to just $2,391,612 USD in 2024.

While thousands of players are definitely leaving Dota 2 behind for Valve’s new MOBA, Deadlock’s popularity can also be credited to it being an easier game to play—especially for beginners. In its early development phase, Deadlock offers only 21 heroes to learn, unlike 125 Dota 2 characters after Ringmaster’s recent addition on Aug. 22.

Whether the constant improvements for Deadlock help it surpass Dota 2’s player count this year will be seen, though Counter-Strike 2 seems to be unaffected by the new game.