Invite-only Valve shooter Deadlock hits 125,000 concurrent players after “Old Gods, New Blood” update
Valve’s currently invite-only, unreleased, third-person MOBA shooter Deadlock is quietly climbing the Steam leaderboards, despite the widespread Steam user base being unable to jump in and try it out.
Over the weekend, Deadlock’s concurrent player count surged past 100,000 players and peaked at 125,000 active users on 22 February 2026. It went toe-to-toe with Marvel Rivals’ player count and edged close to Overwatch 2’s peak of 136,000 players during the same timeframe.
This is astonishing, given the fact that Overwatch 2 and Marvel Rivals are free-to-play titles, while Deadlock is currently locked behind invites and is far from going gold.
Currently, Deadlock’s gameplay features an intuitive mashup of many Valve games that have garnered a beloved fanbase. It boasts complex systems akin to Dota 2, such as three-lane splits that require players to manage them, custom item builds, and complicated movement tech similar to Team Fortress 2.
Deadlock features gameplay loops and styles that Valve knows inside and out. The game features two teams of six players who go on the offensive or defensive to push or protect individual lanes on a large map set in New York with a steampunk fantasy twist.
Similar to Dota 2, players pick a hero, push lanes with the help of NPC troops, and collect souls as currency to purchase upgrades in an attempt to kill the enemy team’s extraplanar deities, or “Patrons”: the Archmother and the Hidden King, inside the Uptown and Downtown bases.
Deadlock arrived on Steam in August 2024 and peaked at 171,000 players. However, its player count dwindled due to its early access status and sparse content. Recently, things have changed in 2026, as Valve released the “Old Gods, New Blood” update in January, which added six heroes, bringing the roster to 38, a new 4v4 Street Brawl mode, and reworked Patrons, along with numerous quality-of-life fixes.
What makes this surge in players even more surprising is that Valve hasn’t marketed or promoted the game in any way, and the only way to play Deadlock currently is to receive an invite from someone who already has access.
Currently, Deadlock’s Steam page still shows the game as early in development. The game has yet to receive a release date, and it seems Valve currently has no plans to open Deadlock’s doors to the general public.
It seems the marketplace giant is in no rush to unlock Deadlock for the general masses while the company continues to tinker with and test the game at its own pace.
Deadlock could end up becoming a mainstay competitive MOBA shooter in the current flimsy live-service landscape, as legendary lead designers like Dota 2’s IceFrog, reportedly going by the pseudonym Yoshi, continue working on the game’s development.
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