Valve's new game racks up 16k concurrent players, without officially existing

Valve’s next game, which has yet to be officially announced, had over 16,000 concurrent players over the weekend. As of this writing, that number sits at 16,600 via SteamDB. The game is called Deadlock and we’ve known that Valve was working on it for a while, but now it seems as though we are in the midst of a soft launch of some kind.

Again, this game hasn’t been officially announced by the company, though something’s certainly going on. It’s likely that Valve has opened the game up to play tests to gauge how successful the title could be with a proper PR push behind it, as indicated by Eurogamer and others. These numbers are certainly impressive considering, you know, Deadlock has yet to be confirmed by the company.

So what is Deadlock? It’s allegedly a competitive MOBA shooter, billed as “the next Dota” by veteran Valve reporter Tyler McVicker. It’s reported to have been in development since 2018 and is a partnership with IceFrog, an unnamed creator who was originally behind the original Defense of the Ancients mod of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos that started all of the Dota mania.

By all accounts, Deadlock is already in an advanced state of development, given the robust concurrent player count. McVicker describes it as looking “like Valorant, Overwatch, Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2 had a baby.”

Since testers started sharing Deadlock screenshots all over the place, here's ones I can verify, featuring one of the heroes called Grey Talon. pic.twitter.com/KdZSRxObSz

— ‎Gabe Follower (@gabefollower) May 17, 2024

It’s allegedly based in a “fantasy setting mixed with steampunk.” Leaked screenshots certainly point toward a steampunk aesthetic. There are also reportedly Bioshock Infinite-style skyrails that players can hook onto, which is always a good time.

While Valve hasn’t officially announced Deadlock, likely waiting for a surprise drop of some kind, the company did trademark the name back in June. So that’s something. With over 16,000 concurrents, it won’t be long