Valve's in-development MOBA Deadlock is currently enjoying a major player count spike, bringing the game back to levels not seen in almost a year. The Deadlock player count increase follows the recent release of a few new heroes in the game, with the promise of more to come.
Initial testing for Deadlock began just over a year ago. Its existence initially wasn't acknowledged by Valve, despite it being fairly common knowledge that it was in the works. The early momentum of the game saw it hit a peak of over 171,000 concurrent players on Steam, although its player count has dwindled in the year since. To this day, the only way to get into the Deadlock playtest is to be invited by a Steam friend, which may prove prohibitive to some players.
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Deadlock Currently Has Its Highest Player Count in Almost a Year
However, interest in Valve's next multiplayer MOBA is still there, as shown by recent SteamDB numbers. Over the last few days, Deadlock has hit a peak player count of 47,111, which is impressive given the fact that the game has stabilized at between 10,000 and 20,000 over the last few months. It's still a far cry from the 171,490 all-time peak player count, but it's a good sign that Deadlock won't be dead on arrival further down the line.
Deadlock's sudden spike in players is no accident. On August 18, Valve emerged from the shadows to confirm that six new Deadlock heroes were being rolled out in the near-future. At the time of writing, just three of the six have been released: Mina, Billy, and The Doorman. The last of the trio has caught the attention of many gamers in particular, with his ability to open doors on walls (portals, some would say) reminding players of another popular Valve franchise. The release of these characters has already been enough for fans to give Deadlock another chance, but whether they'll stick around is another matter.
After something of a hiatus in the mid-to-late 2010s, it seems that Valve's interest in fully-fledged games development is ramping up again. Counter-Strike 2 was released in 2023 and continues to get frequent updates, the long-rumored Half-Life 3 occasionally gets positive development updates from in-the-know leakers, and Deadlock represents the studio trying something completely new. Sure, not everything will work, but the gaming industry is undeniably better when Valve is in the business of actually making and releasing new games.
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Shooter, MOBA
