Deadlock , Valve’s enigmatic MOBA, just released an enormous new update, City Never Sleeps . Since the summer of 2025, its population has slowly grown, aided by new additions and updates. But now, City Never Sleeps has broken its all-time record by a significant margin.

When the update launched on Tuesday, Deadlock rocketed up to 228,000 concurrent players on Steam, its highest 2026 count since its update Old Gods, New Blood, which topped out around 125,000 players near its release. It is also the most in the game’s entire history on Steam, at 171,000 in September 2024, after the game’s profile accelerated dramatically when NDAs were lifted and invites went out.

City Never Sleeps added a whole lot to the game, including six new characters: Rat King, Solomon, Baba, Deadman Danny, Nurse Harrow and Violet, which are rolling out in time. It also added four new districts: Theater District, Chinatown, Haunted Lot District and Plaza District.

On top of that, there’s a new NPC merchant, new map interaction items, new challenges and many other UI and QoL changes and updates. Despite having over 200,000 concurrent players, Deadlock is still considered in “early development” by Valve and therefore does not yet have player reviews on Steam. So exactly how this update is being received varies case by case across the community rather than being a single number to look at.

Deadlock is a rare success, a new multiplayer game launching in the last few years and becoming a hit in a crowded market of existing hits. And much less doing it with a totally new IP, where something like Marvel Rivals has had that brand to lean on. But this is Valve, of course, maker of some of the greatest games of all time, so quality was to be expected.

It’s not at all clear when Deadlock will be considered out of “early development,” as we are going on two years now with no sign of that. This isn’t really even “early access” in the traditional sense of an “in beta” classification. But it is currently putting up numbers that most games would kill for.

It’s possible we have seen the peak on Tuesday, though we’ll see how it performs this upcoming weekend when players have more gaming time to spare. Regardless, Deadlock is a hit despite being so early in its lifespan and is already making a big impact on a market that has proven impenetrable for most.

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