‘Dota 2’ hits highest peak player count in nearly two years

Dota 2 has hit its highest concurrent player count in almost two years, with over 780,000 players on Steam.

According to data from Steam Charts, as reported by Yahoo News, Valve‘s popular MOBA has just hit its highest player count in 20 months.

As of January 2022, Dota 2 has peaked at 786,118 players, and, as of writing, its current player count is sitting at a staggering 655,013. The last time the game performed so well was in April 2020, which saw over 800,000 players before gradually going down.

The reason why Dota 2 is performing so well hasn’t been confirmed, but there are several possible reasons for its sudden surge in popularity. One reason could be due to the release of Dota: Dragon’s Blood Book Two on January 18, the second season of the game’s anime spin-off Netflix show.

The MOBA did see a rise in players when the first season was released last March. At the time, the game saw the player count go from 648,875 to 705,534 in April – according to Stream Charts.

Another reason for the game’s popularity could have been caused by its latest patch, which introduced Aghanim’s collector’s cache and Labyrinth update, along with new rewards and 18 sets.

Meanwhile, Valve recently cancelled Dota 2‘s winter tournament due to Covid-19 risks. Following the announcement, pro players expressed their disappointment with Valve’s choice to alter the tournaments.

“Valve openly thinks that pro players/pro-teams/orgs don’t add any value to their product,” said pro player KheZu. “That the reason people watch pro Dota is only because of their game & nothing else. Their actions reflects this way of thinking entirely. They don’t give a fuck about their alleged ‘partners’”

In other news, according to developer Kaizen Game Works, it looks like Paradise Killer could be coming to the PlayStation 5 soon.