Dota 2 is experiencing a surge in player count as the game continues to thrive despite entering its 15th year in 2026. The game has approached a million players almost every week since The International 2025, and continues to ride high.
At the time of writing, the game experienced a 816,433 player 24-hour peak, according to SteamDB. That’s only around 150,000 less than its yearly peak of 961,289 in September of this year.
It’s unknown exactly why Dota 2 is seeing a surge in players. Multiple factors are likely playing into the increase of Dota 2’s popularity, including ongoing events, Steam Sales bringing players back onto the platform, the holiday season bringing more players onto PC, and the tail end of the annual TI player count rise.
All this has combined to make 2025 the second most popular year for Dota 2 since 2019. 2025 has seen the largest number of players since 2022, where the game broke over a million. The storied MOBA also surpassed its highest player count during the Crownfall Event, during this month’s Monster Hunter crossover, showing that despite criticism levied at the event, it has drawn players.
Dota 2’s Player Count is the best its been in over three years. Image Credit: SteamDB
While obviously Dota 2 had a much higher peak in the past, with its highest ever user number being around 1.3 million just under 10 years ago, it’s still impressive. The game has held its own as Steam’s number two game (after Counter-Strike 2) for almost that entire time, and even when it falls against flavor-of-the-month competition, it quickly returns.
It’s also a great counterpoint to the ‘dead game’ allegations the almost 15-year-old game faces. When 800,000 a day play the game, it’s hard to point to it being on its last legs. After all, we’ve already called it one of the best free games you can play on Steam in 2025, and we doubt much will change that (until the release of Deadlock at least).
Just when you think Dota 2 is dying, 800k players crawl out of the woodwork and prove you wrong. We love to see it.
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Featured Image Credit: Valve
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