Cover-Credits:
During a recent Twitch stream, popular Dota 2 streamer Janne "Gorgc'' Stefanovski came across a Reddit post that highlighted an earlier statement from Jerry “BlitzSpanks'' Ferguson who predicted Dota 2 would be a “dead” game by the end of 2023. BlitzSpanks made this statement in a video titled “Why the Dota 2 Playerbase Never Grows” on YouTube when Valve delayed patch 7.33. Gorgc asserted that the game was far from dying and put forth his views on the matter.
Gorgc Highlights How the Dota 2 Community Backs the Game
During one of his recent streams, while browsing through Reddit, a post titled “Dead Game” caught Gorgc’s attention. Curiously, Gorgc clicked on it and was greeted by the statement made by fellow Dota 2 content creator BlitzSpanks who stated that Dota 2 would die by the end of 2023.
Gorgc remarked, “I think it's pretty simple, guys. People overestimate Dota dying because they think it's like a regular game. People are mega-committed to this game. This is a 20-year-old game. Like, you know, it's not dying. It's literally not dying.”
To justify his reasoning, Gorgc recounted the number of bad patches Dota 2 has received but pointed out how the player base still seems to stick around.
He said, “I mean, if any proof it's not dying, we keep getting sh*t patches and whatever the fu*k else, right? Or no patches, or no cosmetics, or nothing, right? Or whatever the fu*k. And nobody's leaving. The player base is not leaving. So, we've been through a lot in the player base. It's not changing. So yeah, it's not going to die, not very easily at all.”
In the video released almost nine months after the release of patch 7.32e, BlitzSpanks highlighted the problems in the Dota 2 player base. He talked about the declining player base and compared it to another MOBA title, League of Legends.
In his opinion, he attributed the alleged declining player base to reasons like the slow pace of the game, the amount of time spent waiting in queue, strategy time, and time during death which doesn’t attract newer players as compared to other newer games titles like Valorant, Apex Legends that have faster game-pace. He also praised League of Legends for having shorter match durations, attracting more players. BlitzSpanks also pointed out the timespan between patches being too big, stating it to be “four to five months.”
According to steamcharts.com, Dota 2 is the second-highest game played on Steam with a peak of 800k players in the last 30 days. The game with the highest player base is Counter-Strike 2 with over 1.2 Million players active in the last 30 days. Dota 2 has an all-time peak of almost 1.3 Million players which was recorded in March 2016. Although 800K players are substantially lower than its all-time peak, it is nowhere near being considered a dead game. Now, with Valve’s commitment to change the game for the better and have frequent patch updates, Dota 2 seems to be on the trajectory for a better future.
