Deadlock Hits a Record 228,086 Steam Players, but Valve Says It Is Not Ready for Release

Deadlock, Valve's invite-only hero shooter, reached 228,086 concurrent players on Steam after its City Never Sleeps update, the highest figure in its history according to SteamDB data cited by Eurogamer. In the same update announcement on Steam, posted on 29 September 2026, Valve explained why the game is still not ready for a full release.

This article is built on Valve's announcement and Steam store page, Steam's own player charts (read on 1 October at 06:31 UTC) and reporting from Eurogamer, PC Gamer and Rock Paper Shotgun.

How big was the jump on Steam?

Steam's public chart data shows the effect of the update even without third-party trackers. In Steam's most played chart, in data dated 30 September, Deadlock ranks 8th, up from 21st a week earlier, with a peak of 185,234 players. Valve's own Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 hold first and second place.

Steam's chart figure is lower than the SteamDB record, and Steam does not say exactly which time window its peak covers, so we list both rather than pick one. Steam's public current-players endpoint returned no data for Deadlock when we checked, so the live numbers above come from Steam's own chart service.

What did City Never Sleeps add?

Valve describes the update as a massive visual overhaul of the map and neutral enemies, six new heroes, HUD changes, quality-of-life additions and accessibility options, with the full list on its City Never Sleeps page. Rock Paper Shotgun names the six heroes as Nurse Harrow, Rat King, Solomon, Deadman Danny, Baba and Violet, and counts more than 10,000 new non-ping voice lines. Valve's post ends by reminding players to vote, and PC Gamer reports the vote decides which of the new heroes arrives first.

Eurogamer notes that the lanes of the New York-inspired map now have distinct themes, with the three main lanes called Broadway, Greenwich and York.

Why does Valve say Deadlock is not ready?

Valve's post calls the game unfinished and explains why it ships it early anyway: building a multiplayer game is "very hard and risky", and early player feedback is how the studio reduces that risk. It describes three groups of work still in progress:

• Features it wants to change based on feedback before full release: progression, and hero and hideout customisation.
• Speculative experiments that may never ship, including large item redesigns and alternate game modes, which Valve says have tested promisingly so far.
• Objectives it has not got to yet, namely the Midboss, Guardians and Walkers, which will be the focus of upcoming updates. Valve adds that it will likely start remodelling older heroes gradually alongside that work.

Valve gives no date or price. PC Gamer reads the post the same way: the scale of the update is not a sign of an imminent public launch.

How can you play Deadlock now?

Only through an invite. The Steam store page says access is limited to friend invites from existing playtesters, and describes the game as an early development build with temporary art and experimental gameplay. There is nothing to buy and no public sign-up, so treat any site selling Deadlock keys or access with suspicion.

For players already in, one date matters: Valve's July post introducing Ranked mode said the first season ends on 7 October, after which the next one begins. Valve posts its patches and season news on the Deadlock news page on Steam.

What we don't know yet

Valve has not said whether Deadlock will be free-to-play like Dota 2, when invites will open up, or which of the speculative game modes will survive testing. It is also too early to say how much of the new peak will hold. The same question applies to The Witcher 3 Remastered, which sits one place above Deadlock in the same Steam chart. We will update this page if Valve announces a release window or opens access more widely.