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As a result of Valve's pleasant surprise in announcing ‘The International Swag Bag’ that includes a free Arcana, Battle Pass, and Dota Plus for Dota 2 players, the game has drawn a lot of attention. Dota 2 players have flocked to these much coveted in-game aspects becoming free, resulting in the peak player count reaching 920,538 on 27th Oct. This is the highest number recorded when it comes to the peak Dota 2 player count in 41 months. A peak player count of nearly 1,000,000 was achieved back in May 2019 when the game received a similarly large influx of players.
Dota 2 sees an increase in players following Valve's announcement of 'The International Swag Bag’
A lot of hype was generated in the Dota 2 community when Valve, out of the blue, revealed ‘The International Swag Bag’ on 26th Oct. This initiative offers a level 1 Battle Pass (or 24 levels for Battle Pass owners), a month of Dota Plus, and a free Arcana from the Dota 2 store to hype the fans ahead of The International (TI) finals.
Players got excited and went on to log into the game to claim their prizes, which even resulted in the in-game coordination going down and the claim feature also malfunctioning because of a potentially higher volume of traffic.
On the following day, even more players poured into the game, reaching a peak player count of 920,538. This was in a month that has so far seen the game lose a staggering 12% of its average monthly user base according to data tracking website Steam Charts.
With regards to players lost in 2022, October has been the worst month, but this initiative from Valve might just make that number seem less daunting since many players are likely to return to claim these prizes.
This 920,538 count is the highest peak number since February, March, April, and May 2019 when almost a million players topped out. As the weekend approaches and TI11 finals take place, this number might just surpass 1 Million.
A Dota 2 player can claim the prizes with no hard limitations. There is just one: they are required to play (or have played) at least 10 Dota matches during the Battle Pass season, which will last until January 2023.
