Is Dota 2 Dying? – Verdict from a decade-old fan and some stats

Is Dota 2 dying? – A decade-old debate for the ancient game might have reached its verdict after Valve’s International 11 fiasco. That’s such a shame, considering the Dota 2 community’s love the game dwells much longer than its decade-old journey. As its predecessor, Defence of the Ancients (Dota), has long been a fan-favorite among MOBA fans.

Dota 2 maintains a healthy playerbase, but over time it has slowly fallen to 1/3 of it’s peak. Most of the best Dota 2 players are getting older and retiring from the scene. However, age isn’t the only reason why the player base is dwindling. Dota 2 esports isn’t a sustainable career anymore, and the game just doesn’t offer new updates frequently.

Is Dota 2 Dying?

Hence, is Dota dead, you might be wondering? Well, the optimistic me would love to proudly say that it’s still as thrilling and alive as the day we installed Dota 2 Beta.

For what it’s worth, Dota 2 still survived the test of time for the most part, but seasonal fluctuations in active players happens year-round. Most notably, when Icefrog drops a significant update on the game that reworks the fundamental game mechanics itself, or when Valve generously gave away one free Arcana to all players in November 2022.

Of course, Valve has consistently worked on bringing Dota 2 to the general public’s appeal. Earlier in 2021, Valve collaborated with Netflix to release an entire Dota 2 series featuring the Dragon’s Blood, which has three seasons to-date. Needless to say, it was just the mainstream media Dota 2 needed to get more fans on board.

Unfortunately, that’s plausibly all we can appreciate from Valve’s efforts in keeping the Dota 2 community satisfied. On the esports side of things, Dota 2 fans are disappointed with Valve’s treatment of their best-selling franchise.

The Dota 2 developers have also attempted to spice things up with new gameplay changes, heroes and the occasional festive events, such as Diretide. It brought a peak player count of 990,000 during its course.

That’s as good as it gets in terms of record-breaking numbers as the last peak player count Dota 2 had, was a million players back in 2019. Whether Valve’s actions managed to win the Dota 2 community’s hearts after the poor production at TI11 and the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) last year, we will let you decide.

The Dota Update 7.33 is arguably the biggest shift in Dota 2 gameplay we had in ages, such as a wandering Roshan, a portal between the top and bottom lane, and buildings that reflect damage.

Is Dota 2’s Competitive Scene Dying?

Every year, the Dota 2 player base waits eagerly for Valve to release the Dota 2 Battle Pass. In 2020, the Dota 2 Battle Pass raked in 160 million USD of revenue from sales. It’s that one time of the year when Dota 2 players pump in cash to fund the Internationals series.

While advertisements and sponsors from betting sites aren’t uncommon among tournament organizers, it’s the fact that TI11, a community-funded championship, shouldn’t require any third-party sponsors. TI11 prize pool was 18 million USD, which means Valve raked approximately 56 million USD for themselves. This should have been enough to cover the TI11 production cost wholly.

Unfortunately, with how underwhelming the most recent TI11 Battle Pass was, in terms of cosmetic rewards. It was the first time a TI Championship collected a lower prize pool than its predecessor. In fact, TI11 was so horrible in terms of value, that it performed worse than TI6, which was five years ago. Additionally, Valve decided to stop the contribution of revenues earned in the second half of Battle Pass 2022, so TI11 had lesser time to build up its prize pool.

With TI12 returning to Seattle, the original venue of Internationals Championships, perhaps Valve has something grand in store for the undying fans. Well, we can only hope.

How many people still play Dota 2?

Dota 2’s all-time peak is still 1.29 million players, which was long achieved in year 2016. As of May 2023, Dota 2 has a daily average of 434,994 active players. Not too shabby, considering we just had a massive update. Sure, these numbers pale in comparison to its competitors, but true Dota fans will tell you that the experience is unlike any MOBA out there.

Will these numbers improve as we creep closer to the International 12 in October 2023? – Yes, we can at least expect a surge when the championship takes off.

Is Dota 2 losing players?

Short answer is yes, Dota 2 is indeed losing players.

With the recent rise in popularity of mobile games like Genshin Impact, there’s a new trend in the gaming community to play mobile games. Furthermore, Dota 2’s average player age is getting older than other game titles. Dota 2 is mostly retaining veteran players, but the lack of interest from the younger players is still a cause for concern. As years go by, Dota 2 might need to attract younger generations to fill the void. After all, we can’t just rely on Dota 2 fans in their late 30s to maintain the player base.

On average more players stop playing Dota 2, then new players sign up to play. There is however the added benefit of Dota 2 being a cyclical game, with players returning to the title during crucial seasons.

Do the best Dota 2 players still play?

In 2023, we witnessed a new class of best Dota 2 players rises to our expectations. New competitors claimed the top spots in DPC 2023 rankings, and Tundra Esports, which isn’t even among the top three teams in DPC 2023, won TI11.

Traditional powerhouses like Evil Geniuses, PSG.LGD, Team Secret, OG and Alliance all struggle, but there are plenty of new organizations to replace these old-timers, notably Gaimin Gladiators.

Hall of Famers and the best Dota 2 players still play in various teams across the ecosystem. Most of the legendary OG lineup is still active in one form or another. Wang “Ame” Chunyu and the players from the legendary PSG.LGD superteam are still active. Even Ti2011 winner Danil “Dendi” Ishutin is still playing over in North America.

Dota 2 and Icefrog are listening

Dota 2 is a beloved MOBA genre with diehard fans throughout its decade-long establishment. Even so, fans have often criticized the developers and Icefrog for not listening to suggestions and feedback as much as we wanted. Well, truth be told, they have been listening, at least when it comes to the gameplay.

In 2022, we saw a change in how Dota 2 dev team operates, notably in how efficient they are leveraging player feedback. Many features that have been on many players’ bucket list finally got implemented, which improves the game’s quality-of-life experiences. Furthermore, cosmetics, more frequent cosmetic updates, and events are in the development to fancy the players.

While there are still room for improvement in terms of how Valve should run the DPC 2023 more systematically. In hindsight, we should still be grateful that it is a step in the right direction by Icefrog and his team. As loyal Dota 2 fans always appreciate the features, cosmetics, and events, even if it meant splurging thousands.