News brief
Deadlock hits a record 228,000 players without a release date
Valve’s City Never Sleeps update pushed Deadlock past 228,000 concurrent Steam players twice in four days. The game still has no release date, and the next test is Tuesday’s hero drop.
Key points
- Valve released Deadlock’s City Never Sleeps update on September 29, 2026, with a map and neutral overhaul and six new heroes that players vote into the game one at a time.
- SteamDB data reported by Beebom shows a peak of 228,086 concurrent players after the update, beating the game’s previous record of 171,490.
- SteamPeaks lists a new all-time peak of 228,208 on October 2, 2026, the day Valve made the first voted hero, the Rat King, playable.
- Daily peaks fell to about 140,000 on October 1 before the Rat King release brought them back, according to SteamPeaks.
- Valve says the next hero arrives Tuesday, October 6, at 2pm PDT (6pm ART). Deadlock’s Steam page still lists its release as To be announced.
Deadlock has no release date, and it just set its concurrent-player record twice in one week. Valve’s City Never Sleeps update went live on September 29, 2026, and pushed Valve’s shooter-MOBA past 228,000 players on Steam. The first voted hero, the Rat King, arrived on October 2 and nudged the record a little higher.
The Steam store page still lists Deadlock as To be announced, and Valve describes it as a multiplayer game in early development. That makes it one of the biggest games on Steam this week while officially not being out.
The numbers
Beebom, citing SteamDB, reported a peak of 228,086 concurrent players after the update, beating the previous record of 171,490. SteamPeaks now lists an all-time peak of 228,208 on October 2, the Rat King’s release day.
On the night of October 2, Destructoid (Andrej Barovic) reported that Deadlock briefly sat third on Steam’s concurrent-player chart. That put it behind Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2, so all three top spots were Valve games for a while, before WARDOGS passed it.
We could not open SteamDB directly from our desk, so these figures are attributed to the outlets and trackers that published them.
What the hero vote is doing
City Never Sleeps added six heroes: Nurse Harrow, Rat King, Solomon, Deadman Danny, Baba and Violet. They don’t all arrive at once. Players vote in the new pregame lobby, and the winning team’s votes count double. The Rat King won the first round, and Valve’s announcement says the next hero arrives Tuesday at 2pm PDT, which is October 6 at 6pm in Argentina.
The daily peaks show why that schedule matters. SteamPeaks lists about 228,000 on September 29, 185,000 on September 30 and 140,000 on October 1. Then the Rat King came out on October 2 and the peak went back to a record. The drop-off between heroes is steep, and every new hero has brought players back so far. Tuesday is the next check on whether that keeps working.
Some outlets report a Tuesday-and-Friday rhythm for the remaining heroes. Valve’s post only confirms the next one, so we are not treating the rest of the schedule as fixed.
What Valve says is still coming
In its City Never Sleeps post, Valve says it is working on progression and hero and hideout customization, and wants to be able to change those based on feedback before the game is fully released. It calls bigger item redesigns and alternate game modes more speculative, depending on playtesting. It also names the Midboss, Guardians and Walkers as things it plans to work on in upcoming updates.
None of that is a release date. Valve has not announced one, and this piece does not guess.
Questions and answers
- How many people are playing Deadlock?
- SteamPeaks lists an all-time peak of 228,208 concurrent Steam players on October 2, 2026. Beebom, citing SteamDB, reported a 228,086 peak after the City Never Sleeps update on September 29. The previous record was 171,490.
- When is the next Deadlock hero coming out?
- Valve’s Rat King announcement on October 2 says the next hero arrives on Tuesday at 2pm PDT, which is October 6, 2026, at 6pm Argentina time. Players choose which of the remaining five heroes comes next by voting in the pregame lobby.
- Is Deadlock officially released?
- No. Valve calls Deadlock a multiplayer game in early development, and its Steam store page lists the release date as To be announced. Valve has not given a launch date.
Sources
- Valve (Deadlock on Steam) — City Never Sleeps (September 29, 2026)
- Valve — Deadlock: City Never Sleeps update page
- Valve (Deadlock on Steam) — Listen up, Crumbums! Your King is here. (October 2, 2026)
- Steam — Deadlock store page
- Beebom — Deadlock Smashes Its All-Time Player Count Record with City Never Sleeps Major Update
- Destructoid — Deadlock soars on Steam to take place among its top three most-played games (Andrej Barovic, October 3, 2026)
- SteamPeaks — Deadlock player counts
- Shacknews — Deadlock’s Rat King voted in as the first playable character of the City Never Sleeps update (TJ Denzer, October 2, 2026)
