Deadlock almost broke into Steam’s 100 most-played games despite not being announced yet

Valve looks to be repeating its Dota 2 strategy

Valve

Deadlock, Valve’s upcoming hybrid between hero-shooter and MOBA, almost got into the 100 most-played games on Steam over the past weekend, peaking at 16,947 concurrent players, according to SteamDB – a very strong player count considering that Valve hasn’t even publicly acknowledged the game’s existence yet. With that CCU peak it ranked at #107 on the list of most-played games on the platform on Sunday.

Screenshots from the ongoing Deadlock playtest emerged earlier this year, confirming rumors that had been circulating around the project for a while. Previously known as Neon Prime and Citadel, Deadlock is supposedly the title Dota 2 creator Icefrog has been working on.

Valve seems to be steadily expanding the pool of testers for the game, as it apparently allows players to invite users on their Steam friend list to participate.

This is not the first time the developer and publisher essentially soft-launched a game like this – Dota 2 being the most famous example. It was available as a “closed beta” for the longest time, though keys and invites were so readily available that anyone who wanted to play could do so.

According to testers, the game is still using placeholder art assets in many places, so it’s not like it seems to be ready to go public at a moment’s notice. However, users have been praising the title’s mechanics and unique blend of MOBA systems with the hero-shooter genre, so it seems as if Valve is heading into a fun direction with the title. Since it appears to be leaning heavily on the MOBA aspect, Deadlock seems to be well-positioned to occupy its own niche in a genre that’s getting more and more competitive with arrivals like Marvel Rivals and Concord.

Speaking of which: Deadlock easily beats Concord’s open beta in terms of numbers already, so that bodes pretty well.

The MOBA shooter may not be the only project currently being cooked in Gabe Newell’s kitchen: Half-Life 3 hopes recently made a resurgence after fans spotted a previously unknown game in development at the studio.

As always, Valve moves at its own pace and acts by its own rules – but if you want to get your first taste of Deadlock, you’re probably just one chat with someone on your friend list away from getting access.