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Dota 2 Workshop Spring Call-to-ArmsMar 24, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsIn the wake of Muerta's arrival with the Dead Reckoning update, it's time to aim our sights at updates to come. To that end, the Dota team would like to invite all workshop contributors to conjure up some new sets for any of your favorite heroes. Submissions are already open, and we're looking forward to seeing your full craft on display. This round of submissions also welcomes designs for the Toy Butcher Pudge Persona and the Disciple's Path Anti-Mage Persona, which have both blinked into the workshop just in time to join the fun. We request that all submissions be on the Dota 2 Workshop by the end of the day on May 29, 2023 PDT. Please make sure to mark your work with the "Spring 2023" tag when tendering items to the Workshop to ensure they aren't overlooked. As always, please avoid concepts involving human skulls, blood, and gore. We'd like to remind all Dota fans to regularly visit the Workshop and vote through the Queue to ensure your voices are heard in the selection process. We'll also be launching a second Workshop Call-to-Arms later this year — with a late-August deadline — so even if you've got new ideas at the ready, there's plenty of time to brainstorm on your designs.Dota 2 Update - 3/17/2023Mar 17, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsGameplay Update Muerta: Base Attack Time improved from 1.7s to 1.6s Dead Shot Ricochet Fear Duration decreased from 1.25/1.5/1.75/2.0s to 1.0/1.2/1.4/1.6s Pierce the Veil Duration increased by 0.35s to account for Transform Duration Pierce the Veil Bonus Attack Damage increased from 50/75/100 to 50/100/150 Level 25 Talent +20% Gunslinger Chance replaced with The Calling Summons 2 additional revenants Level 20 Talent The Calling Summons 2 additional revenants replaced with Talent +20% Gunslinger Chance Level 15 Talent +25 Damage increased to +35 Damage Dota 2 Update - 3/15/2023Mar 15, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsFixed an issue where some players claimed Fantasy Card Packs but were unable to open them. Because players were unable to participate in Fantasy for a week as a result, we have granted 2 Fantasy Levels to all players that experienced this bug. Bans for 46 players in cheating case hit Dota 2 esports, including 21 lifetime bansMar 12, 2023 - PC Gamer46 players have been banned from Dota 2 Esports events, seemingly resulting from an investigation following allegations of cheating in January's Chinese regional Winter Tour of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC). The list includes the entirety of the team Knights, which was accused of using a vision hack to cheat their way to a third-place finish in the DPC matches... Read more.DPC Spring Tour KickoffMar 10, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/d5d396eb58a140b019e4f9efbff79dbd6ae69661.jpg A big congratulations from all of us here at Dota to the Gaimin Gladiators, who outlasted 17 of the best teams in the world to take top prize at The Lima Major this past weekend, earning themselves a cool 400 DPC points and a strong start on this year’s road to The International. The 2023 DPC Season continues with the Spring Tour, starting March 13th and culminating at the end of April with the Berlin Major, hosted by ESL. Supporters Clubs Show off your support for your favorite teams by joining their Supporters Club. Today we're shipping an initial set of supporters clubs, with more to be added in the coming days. Teams who submit content to feature in a Supporters Club bundle receive 50% of all of their team's bundle sales. Fans who choose to support teams will receive increasing amounts of content provided by their favorite team(s), depending on the tier purchased: Bronze Tier A badge for your favorite team, which will appear in your friends list, player profile, Versus Screen, and in-game scoreboard (swappable if you purchase more than one team's bundle) 1 Team Fantasy Player Pack 1 Basic Fantasy Player Pack Silver Tier All the perks of the Bronze Club Sprays to liven up your map and Loading Screens 2 additional Team Player Card Packs 6 additional Basic Player Card Packs Gold Tier All of the perks of the Bronze and Silver Clubs A special in-game HP-bar badge, as well as Emoticons and Chat Wheel Lines to proclaim your allegiance in-game 3 additional Team Player Card Packs 7 additional Basic Player Card Packs Note: Content is subject to availability based on a team's content submission. DPC Fantasy If you're new to Fantasy or might like a refresher, peruse this recap before you unpack your cards and play. You can also check the How to Play breakdown in the FANTASY section of the client for full details. The Basics For each weeklong period, fans set a Fantasy roster made up of two Core Player Cards, one Mid Player Card, and two Support Player Cards. Player Cards on a roster score Fantasy points based on how well they perform in that period's matches. Silver & Gold Cards have stat bonuses that earn more points. Player Card Packs All players have been granted 10 starter packs claimable on the DPC menu under the Watch tab. Additional Player Card Packs can be earned daily by winning a game of Dota. Team Packs will be available for purchase directly from the PLAYER CARDS tab in the WATCH section as teams submit their Supporters Club bundles in the near future. When you open a pack you'll receive player cards from the specific region you have selected. Regional Fantasy Each DPC region is its own Fantasy league with its own player cards and unique lineup. You may choose to participate in multiple regional leagues, and you will earn Fantasy Levels based on your best fantasy league performance for the period. For instance, if you place in the top 10% of one league and the top 50% of ...Dota 2's new ghostly gunslinger hero is liveMar 7, 2023 - PC GamerMuerta, the Dota 2 hero who was announced way back in October 2022, has finally arrived in the game as part of the now-live Dead Reckoning update... Read more.Dota 2's new hero Muerta is here, accompanied by new event and setsMar 7, 2023 - PCGamesNStrap in folks, Dota 2's new hero Muerta is set to pop heads and take names. Dropping into Valve's iconic MOBA on March 6, the spectral gunslinger is accompanied by a new mini-game and some Day of The Dead-inspired character sets that are a must-have for players who love the aesthetic. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Dota 2 patch clamps down on cheaters as console commands take a hit Dota 2 bans 40,000 accounts as Valve warns "cheaters never welcome" Dota 2 supporters club is 75% off, so get ready to represent Dota 2 removes OpenGL support, new hero Muerta now live, big update due in AprilMar 7, 2023 - GamingOnLinuxThe latest major update to Dota 2 from Valve has landed, bringing with it the removal of OpenGL support and the new hero Muerta. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/03/dota-2-removes-opengl-new-hero-muerta-live-big-update-in-april The Dead Reckoning UpdateMar 6, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/eed29f6e3869ae971f31126c94bae2e249332ad6.png MUERTA HAS RISEN Death’s right hand joins the battle of the Ancients with a dead eye, two fists full of iron, and ammo to spare. Help her track down souls and usher them to the afterlife (before they usher you to yours) in the Dead Reckoning Mini-game, and use your bounty to unlock all-new item sets. The Dead Reckoning is at hand, and now available to play. Check out the full update page for details on all the deadly delights in store. Dota Plus Spring Update Spring is almost here, and that means it's time for a fresh Dota Plus update, including Advanced Battle Stats, Seasonal Treasure and updated quests and rewards. Advanced Battle Stats Elevate — and evaluate — your game with advanced Battle Stats directly in your profile. Dota Plus members now have access to completely revamped, real-time gameplay analytics. Dig deeper into your play style by sorting your complete Dota history by hero, role, game mode, and more. Dota Plus Seasonal Treasure The Spring 2023 Seasonal Treasure sets have been bundled with the Dead Reckoning Chest. Murder your Dead Reckoning mini-game targets for more chances to earn chests, then snag a key in the Shard Shop for 20,000 shards each. Seasonal Quests and Guild Rewards Refresh To help in your hunt for Dead Reckoning Keys, a new set of Dota Plus quests have arrived offering up to 115,200 shards over the course of the season. In addition, the rewards for Silver-, Gold-, and Platinum-tier guilds have been updated for this season, featuring new sprays, emoticons, and chat wheels. Seasonal Sets Looking for a vintage item set from an older Dota Plus season? Autumnal 2021 and Wintry 2021 treasure content is now available for direct purchase in the Shard Shop for 15,000 Shards each. Moving Dota Technology Forward As we mentioned when we launched Battle Pass: Part II, this update has removed support for OpenGL. For macOS customers, the minimum requirement is now macOS 10.13.6 with a Metal-capable GPU (AMD GCN-based GPU or newer; NVIDIA Kepler-based GPU or newer; or Intel HD 4000 or newer). For Linux customers, AMD GCN+, NVIDIA Kepler+, or Intel HD 5000-series or newer is required. In a future update this year, we intend to upgrade our SIMD support from SSE2 to SSE4.1 to allow higher performance in physics, particles, and general gameplay code. Almost all processors released in the past 10 years support SSE4.1, so this should affect a very small portion of Dota players. If you have a computer that does not support SSE4.1, you will need to upgrade to a newer CPU once that update releases. We are in the process of updating our models to a newer format known as ModelDoc. After this change is complete, we will be removing several animation-related APIs from our custom game API in favor of ModelDoc's animation support. These deprecated APIs are listed on the Source 2 Developer Community Wiki. 7.33 Coming In April The Dead Reckoning Update has a lot of features we’...Dota 2 patch clamps down on cheaters as console commands take a hitFeb 28, 2023 - PCGamesNWhile February 28's Dota 2 patch is relatively small, it takes aim at cheats and console commands, no doubt a result of Valve's recent ban wave that wiped out over 40,000 cheaters in the longstanding MOBA. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Dota 2 bans 40,000 accounts as Valve warns "cheaters never welcome" Dota 2 supporters club is 75% off, so get ready to represent Dota 2 patch fixes a slew of bugs, but adds one more Gameplay UpdateFeb 27, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsDisabled some functionality used by third-party tools: - Disabled the "record" command in matchmaking games. This was used to record, in realtime, a local demo that would contain information that wasn't intended to be visible to the client during a game. Demo recording is still enabled for local lobbies to enable SFM and community content creation. - Disabled a large number of console commands during matchmaking games that could be used to introspect client state. For example, "dota_lobby_debug", "cl_dota_ambient_tree_shake_cooldown", and "dev_simulate_gcdown" no longer function in these games, while "ping", "disconnect", and "dota_toggle_autoattack" still do. - Player profiles can no longer be accessed in matchmaking during the pregame phase. They can still be accessed once the picking phase ends.Valve tricks Dota 2 cheaters and then bans 40,000 of themFeb 23, 2023 - GamingOnLinuxIn a new post titled "Cheaters Will Never Be Welcome in Dota", Valve mentioned how they managed to get a whole lot of cheaters to show themselves and then gave them a swift boot to the buttocks. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/02/valve-tricks-dota-2-cheaters-and-then-bans-40000-of-them Valve lured 40,000 Dota cheaters into a trap before banning them in one dayFeb 22, 2023 - PC GamerWith more than a little braggadocio, Valve has announced that it's permanently banned over 40,000 Dota 2 accounts for cheating. In a post to the official Dota 2 blog yesterday, the company revealed that it had constructed a cunning trap to catch thousands of players that were using "third-party software" to "access information used internally by the Dota client that wasn't visible during normal gameplay," lending them an unfair advantage in-game... Read more.Dota 2 bans 40,000 accounts as Valve warns "cheaters never welcome"Feb 22, 2023 - PCGamesNA massive Dota 2 ban wave has removed over 40,000 cheating accounts from the hit MOBA, with Valve warning rule-breakers that "cheaters will never be welcome in Dota." Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Dota 2 supporters club is 75% off, so get ready to represent Dota 2 patch fixes a slew of bugs, but adds one more Dota 2 collector's cache II finally unveiled after concerns Cheaters Will Never Be Welcome in DotaFeb 21, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/4263c0bbe42c6f0dbc573f9748e1b69fff6d64b5.png Today, we permanently banned over 40,000 accounts that were using third-party software to cheat in Dota over the last few weeks. This software was able to access information used internally by the Dota client that wasn't visible during normal gameplay, giving the cheater an unfair advantage. While fixing the underlying issues that made these cheats possible was a priority, we have also decided to remove these bad actors from the active Dota playerbase. With that goal in mind, we released a patch as soon as we understood the method these cheats were using. This patch created a honeypot: a section of data inside the game client that would never be read during normal gameplay, but that could be read by these exploits. Each of the accounts banned today read from this "secret" area in the client, giving us extremely high confidence that every ban was well-deserved. The prevalence of this family of cheats means that today's ban wave is particularly large, but it's only the latest action in an ongoing campaign. While the battle against cheaters and cheat developers often takes place in the shadows, we wanted to make this example visible, and use it to make our position clear: If you are running any application that reads data from the Dota client as you're playing games, your account can be permanently banned from playing Dota. This includes professional players, who will be banned from all Valve competitive events. Dota is a game best enjoyed when played on an even field, where victories are earned by skill and tenacity. We expect that some players will continue to develop and use new exploits, to continue to try to gain unfair advantages at the expense of other players. As before, we will continue to detect and remove these exploits as they come, and continue to ban users who cheat. Lastly, we'd like to thank those who offered their time and energy to help us resolve this — from those who reported a player acting suspiciously in-game, to those who reviewed overwatch cases where this behavior was observed. Thank you for helping to make Dota a better experience for everyone.Dota 2 supporters club is 75% off, so get ready to representFeb 21, 2023 - PCGamesNAhead of the upcoming Lima Major, Valve has slashed the price of Dota 2 supporters club cosmetics by a whopping 75%, with 50% of the proceeds going to the esports squads who will be duking it out for one of the MOBA's premier prizes. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Dota 2 bans 40,000 accounts as Valve warns "cheaters never welcome" Dota 2 patch fixes a slew of bugs, but adds one more Dota 2 collector's cache II finally unveiled after concerns The Lima Major ApproachesFeb 20, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/50f9c0ac9e0663aed6190daf2bbac4446c925bec.jpg The 2023 DPC Winter Tour regional showdowns have nearly concluded, and soon the top 18 teams in the world will converge on Peru to compete in the culminating event of the first tour: The Lima Major, presented by 4D Esports. As the first-ever South American DPC Major, we are excited to share the excitement of live Dota with an eager audience of long-standing fans. Dota fans everywhere can catch all the action online as the Group Stage runs February 22 - 26, setting the stage for the Playoffs to follow February 28 - March 5. Dive into all of the tournament teams and standings throughout the event at www.dota2.com/esports. Supporters Club Sale As the Major approaches, show your fan pride and unlock custom equippables by purchasing your favorite team's Supporters Club, now 75% off until the end of the Winter Tour. As always, 50% of every Supporters Club sale goes directly to the team. Fantasy & Player Cards With the conclusion of the regional leagues and the start of the Major, Fantasy has been adjusted for the different format. As with the previous Majors, Player Card packs now contain only players from Major-qualified teams, and Fantasy will run daily instead of weekly. If you're new to Fantasy or just need a refresher, check out this Fantasy rundown from the start of the Tour. Looking Ahead Once the Major Champions have been crowned and the Tour comes to a close, we look forward to unveiling our next update on March 6th.Dota 2 Update — 1/11/2023Jan 11, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsAdded role filters on the hero selection screen, allowing players to drill down to the heroes that best fit the needs of each game. Removed Jungler from the list of hero roles. As part of our effort to keep Dota Technology Moving Forward the version of the V8 JavaScript engine included in Dota has been updated, resulting in a new macOS requirement of 10.13+. For the vast majority of Mac players, this requirements change will have no impact. New DPC Season and Major TournamentsJan 5, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/725ffc3c82336aaceb031ae0f7065adffbcede4b.jpg As a frosty Diretide draws to a close, we welcome both a new year and the heralded return of competitive Dota. Fans everywhere are invited to tune in as the 2023 DPC Season commences with the Winter Tour. The action kicks off today with the start of regional play in China, and the remaining five regions are set to follow on Sunday, January 8. Track the full schedule and standings throughout the season over at our esports hub. Cheer on your favorite teams around the world as they fight to score crucial DPC points and coveted spots at three Major tournaments that await on the road to The International. Teams that excel in the Winter Tour will advance to the Lima Major, hosted by 4D Esports. The Spring Tour will provide further opportunity with the Berlin Major, hosted by ESL, and the Summer Tour will wrap play with the Bali Major, hosted by IO Esports. While history has shown that unforeseen underdogs can certainly vie for the Aegis at The International, these DPC Tours offer the most reliable path for consistent teams to secure invitations to this year's crowning event. Winter Tour Fandom To celebrate the fervor of fandom, today's update includes a fresh season of Supporters Club Bundles and Fantasy play for the Winter Tour. Supporters Clubs Teams who submit content to feature in a Supporters Club bundle receive 50% of all of their team's bundle sales. Fans who choose to support teams will receive increasing amounts of content provided by their favorite team(s), depending on the tier purchased: Bronze Tier - A badge for your favorite team, which will appear in your friends list, player profile, Versus Screen, and in-game scoreboard (swappable if you purchase more than one team's bundle) - 1 Team Fantasy Player Pack - 1 Basic Fantasy Player Pack Silver Tier - All the perks of the Bronze Club - Sprays to liven up your map and Loading Screens - 2 additional Team Player Card Packs - 6 additional Basic Player Card Packs Gold Tier - All of the perks of the Bronze and Silver Clubs - A special in-game HP-bar badge, as well as Emoticons and Chat Wheel Lines to proclaim your allegiance in-game - 3 additional Team Player Card Packs - 7 additional Basic Player Card Packs Note: Content is subject to availability based on a team's content submission. Fantasy Rules Recap If you're new to Fantasy or might like a refresher, peruse this recap before you unpack your cards and play. You can also check the How to Play breakdown in the FANTASY section of the client for full details. The Basics For each weeklong period, fans set a Fantasy roster made up of two Core Player Cards, one Mid Player Card, and two Support Player Cards. Player Cards on a roster score Fantasy points based on how well they perform in that period's matches. Silver & Gold Cards have stat bonuses that earn more points. Player Card Packs All players have been granted 10 starter packs claimable on the DPC menu under the Watch tab....Dota 2 patch fixes a slew of bugs, but adds one moreDec 23, 2022 - PCGamesNThe December 22 Dota 2 patch is relatively slim on the ground, simply fixing some bugs in the MOBA. Fans, however, have noticed that there's a mistake with the new Silencer set that has overshadowed the update. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Dota 2 collector's cache II finally unveiled after concerns Dota 2 hacks are over a year old and Valve hasn't banned them Dota 2 patch 7.32d notes: New update finally nerfs Sniper Dota 2's The International 9 was the Game's Most Watched Event Ever with Over 1 Million Viewers on TwitchAug 26, 2019 - GitHypThe International 2019 made headlines earlier this month when it became the biggest prize pool ever for an esports tournament with $34 million on the line. And with so much at stake, early Sunday morning, Dota 2 set even more records with its first-ever back-to-back champions and its highest viewer count ever on Twitch. Last year’s champions, Europe’s OG, absolutely dominated this year’s event which went late into Saturday night and peaked with 1.1 million viewers early Sunday morning during their 3-1 Grand Final victory over Europe’s team Liquid. After last year’s TI8 Grand Finals saw a 100k decline in viewers, this year’s TI9 had an impressive comeback with a 51% increase in viewership on Twitch. But what was most impressive about this year’s record-breaking stream for Dota 2 was the timing of the live stream on Twitch. With most of Twitch’s regular viewer base still asleep in the United States when this year’s main event ended at 8AM ET/ 5AM PT, TI9 crushed Dota 2’s previous peak of 845k viewers that took place during more normal hours two years ago at TI7 in Seattle.Dota 2’s Player Base is the Highest it's Been in 2 YearsFeb 11, 2019 - GitHypOnce Steam’s most popular game (before PUBG took over), Dota 2’s player base has been on a steady decline since peaking with over a million concurrent players back in 2016. But a new user-created custom game mode and less competition from Blizzard have resulted in Steam's second most popular game making a comeback with Dota 2's player counts now the highest they’ve been in two years. Similar to Dota’s own origin story, a custom map created by Chinese developer, Drodo Games, called “Auto Chess” has captured the attention of Dota 2’s player base in a way that Valve once dreamed only Artifact could. In Auto Chess, players fight across an 8x8 field that mimics a chessboard using Dota’s own heroes for game pieces. Auto Chess' gameplay has been able to create its own little niche of MOBA players who want a greater focus on strategy and less emphasis on fast-paced APM. Dota 2’s in-game counter for Auto Chess has at times shown over 200k concurrent players, which helps explain Dota 2’s own 17% increase in players from January’s 491k average to an average of 573k over the past 30 days. And while Auto Chess can account for most of Dota 2’s new/returning players, another factor has been Blizzard’s announcement that they’ll be shifting focus away from Heroes of the Storm. Considered the third most popular MOBA in the world behind League of Legends and Dota 2, news of Blizzard moving developers to other projects and canceling HotS’ major esports events has made Dota’s community look even more appealing to HotS players looking to abandon ship. Auto Chess isn’t likely to become the next Dota or PUBG creating a new genre overnight, but with its popularity increasing among players, streamers, and catching on even more in China, Valve shouldn’t take any chances letting this developer get away – especially not with Artifact dropping outside of Steam’s top 100 most played games.Dota 2’s The International 2018 Finale was Down Over 100k Viewers Compared to Last Year on TwitchAug 27, 2018 - GitHypEven with a better first day, bigger prize pool, and an epic storybook ending, this year’s biggest Dota 2 event couldn’t manage to top last year's viewers on Twitch. The International 8’s grand finals brought in a peak of 730k concurrent viewers as Europe’s OG took China’s PSG.LGD all the way to the very last game of a best-of-five heart-pounding finale. But while OG’s Cinderella story had Dota 2’s analysts, commentators, and viewers all on the edge of their seats in what many consider TI’s greatest grand finals, it fell short of last year’s peak of 845k viewers. TI7’s far less exciting finale featuring EU’s Team Liquid taking home the victory over Newbee in just 3 quick games. And resulted in an impressive 44% increase in viewership compared to TI6 on Twitch which is still Dota 2’s most watched stream ever. Known for having the biggest single event prize pool in all of esports, The International once again set a new peak of $25 million this year with OG taking home $11 million for first place. However, the $23.9 million contributed by players just barely topped last year’s player contribution of $23.2 million. And surprisingly, it was Day 1 of TI8 that had 100k more viewers than last year’s event. But with player counts down 35% since Dota 2’s peak two years ago and other games like Fortnite taking over Twitch, we predicted that TI8 wouldn’t be able to top TI7’s finale. One thing we didn’t see coming, however, was Valve’s unexpected and accidental reveal of their own streaming service, Steam.tv, which contributed to the decline in viewers on Twitch. Their new site pulled away over 80k viewers from Twitch during TI8’s final matches – but even with the numbers combined, TI7’s viewership still fell short of last year's record-setting peak.Dota 2’s Viewer Base and Prize Pool is Bigger Than Ever at The International 2018Aug 21, 2018 - GitHypWith a peak of 1.3 million players back in March 2016, the decline of Dota 2’s player base and the rise of PUBG on Steam has led to many claiming that Valve’s popular MOBA is a "dead game." But even with the player base at half of what it once was, Dota 2 is far from dead when looking at the game’s stats and popularity as a competitive esport. Last year's biggest Dota 2 event, The International 7, saw its peak viewers on Twitch increase by 44% compared to TI6's grand finals going from a peak of 588k viewers to 845k viewers. This year, TI8 on Twitch is already off to a better start with a peak of 645k viewers on its first day. An increase of 100k viewers when compared to 2017’s first day peak of 546k viewers. Dota 2’s remaining player base have also proven their loyalty and demand for more in-game content by contributing $23 million towards the free-to-play game's Battle Pass system and increasing TI8’s total prize pool to $25 million – the largest it's ever been and an increase of over $200k compared to last year. The International 8’s grand finals are set for this Saturday, August 25th, and while it might not see another 44% increase in viewers, the event should be able to continue its growth and top last year’s peak concurrent viewers on Twitch.Dota 2 Hits New Viewer Peak with The International Up 44% Compared to Last Year on TwitchAug 15, 2017 - GitHypMore Dota 2 viewers than ever tuned in over the weekend to watch The International 7 on Twitch. And with good reason. The Valve-sponsored event for their multiplayer online battle arena game had its highest prize pool ever with a shocking $24 million on the line and the champs taking home over $10 million. Getting into the Twitch numbers, Dota 2 brought in a peak of 845k viewers as Team Liquid defeated Newbee in Saturday's Grand Final. This was an impressive 44% increase in viewers compared to last year when TI6 brought in 588k viewers at its peak. [caption id="attachment_284426" align="aligncenter" width="770"] Dota 2's Peak Viewer Counts on Twitch via GitHyp[/caption] The increase in popularity has also brought Dota 2 closer than ever to topping its biggest competition, League of Legends. Riot’s MOBA hit its own all-time peak of 988k viewers back in 2015, but compared to 2016, LoL’s viewership for its own World Championship event was actually down 5% last October on Twitch. TI7 also helped put Dota 2 over 1 billion total views on Twitch. An impressive number, however, LoL still more than doubles that with 2.1 billion as Twitch's most watched game. But in terms of big eSports competitions, both MOBAs still have a way to go before dethroning Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s record-setting 1.1 million peak viewers that the Valve shooter brought in earlier this year.Steam's Most Played Games of 2016Jan 7, 2017 - GitHyp2016 was another great year for games, but it was also a year filled with the the rise and fall of many new games that over-promised and under-delivered. As a result, Steam's list of most played games in 2016 ended up looking almost the exact same as it did in 2015. Last year's top titles held their spots as newcomers who started off strong quickly lost their player bases by the end of the year. Looking at new releases on Steam in 2016 tracked hourly by GitHyp, the highly hyped and highly controversial, No Man's Sky, had the highest peak player count with 212k concurrent players in a single hour.
  1. Dota 2 / 1,286,617 peak players (#1 in 2015)
  2. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive / 845,806 peak players (#2 in 2015)
  3. No Man's Sky / 212,321 peak players (new)
  4. XCOM 2 / 132,834 peak players (new)
  5. Dark Souls III / 129,922 peak players (new)
Other newcomers such as XCOM 2 (132k players) and Dark Souls III (129k players) also had great launches, but only peaked at half of NMS' record-setting number to round out the top 5. While No Man's Sky, XCOM 2, Dark Souls III, and others such as Tom Clancy's The Division and Total War: Warhammer all had strong launches, none were able to hold their ground and each had huge drops in players that made headlines. Other previous heavy-hitters also made headlines due to under-performing launches such as Call of Duty which was down 76% from last year and Watch Dogs 2 which dropped 61% since the last entry in the series. When looking at the more stable average players per hour metric, 2016 ended the same as 2015 with the exception of Fallout 4 -- which didn't just fall out of the top 5, but also the top 10 at #12.
  1. Dota 2 / 636,607 avg. players per hour (#1 in 2015)
  2. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive / 360,600 avg. players per hour (#2 in 2015)
  3. Team Fortress 2 / 50,802 avg. players per hour (#4 in 2015)
  4. Grand Theft Auto V / 40,258 avg. players per hour (#5 in 2015)
  5. Sid Meier's Civilization V / 37,885 avg players per hour (#9 in 2015)
Dark Souls III dropped to #21 on Steam with an average of 14,186 players per hour. No Man's Sky dropped all the way down to #41 on Steam with an average of 8,393 players per hour. And XCOM 2 barely made the top 50 coming it at #44 with an average of 7,815 players per hour. When looking at the average players per hour, it was actually the free-to-play team-based shooter, Paladins, that ended as 2016's strongest new release ranking in at #15 on Steam with an average of 22,809 players per hour.

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