Gorgc Explains the Potential Reason for Fewer Map Changes in Dota 2

Recent Dota 2 patches have been rolling out at a gradual rate in the past year, bringing changes to heroes, items, and the economy, but it is the map change that has seen the smallest amount of alteration in these patches. In a recent livestream, popular Dota 2 personality Janne "Gorgc" Stefanovski explained why map changes don't happen very often. Gorgc quoted someone who works closely with Valve and said that the company tends to lose players when large patches with major map changes are released. Valve has therefore refrained from doing them in the recent past.

Gorgc mentions the possible reason behind the decreased frequency of Dota 2 map changes.

Since the last major map change in Dota 2 happened around a year ago, players, especially pros, have called for more tweaks to the map but to no avail.

According to Gorgc, during a recent livestream, the reason why Valve has taken a step back from making changes to the map is not because the company doesn't want to make them, but rather that the players get overwhelmed by them. This results in a low player count.

“By the way, I thought about something. Am I supposed to leak this? It’s not a big deal. I don’t remember who I talked to if it was Valve or who the f**k ever it was. It doesn’t count as a leak if I don’t remember. I remember talking to somebody about this that works close to Valve and they said that the problem with these big patches is that we like them but they actually lose players so it’s not worth it. That’s why they are not doing map changes, I think. It’s just because it’s not worth it.”

Gorgc noted that if there is no drop in the number of players, Valve is likely to make fewer changes. He also went on to joke about the revenue that Valve generates from the Battle Pass. “As long as they are not losing players, nothing will change, you know or people stop buying Battle Pass. That’s probably the real thing (grins),” he said.

While browsing Steam Charts to assess Dota 2’s player counter, Gorgc said that even though the numbers have fallen since their peak around 2016, they have been quite stable in recent months.

According to Steam Charts, the average player count for the game has hovered around 400,000 for the past couple of years, reaching a peak of 709,178.3 in February 2016.