Deadlock Hasn’t Been Announced, But It Has More Than 18,000 Players

Deadlock, the rumoured hero shooter from Valve that’s set to rival Overwatch 2, hasn’t been officially announced, but that hasn’t stopped almost 20,000 players from enjoying the game. Per the latest data from SteamDB, 18,254 concurrent players were recorded on Deadlock as recently as yesterday, and over time, the number of people finding their way into the game is growing.

Since May 2024, the Deadlock player count has been rising, hitting more than 1,000 players as of May 30. At the start of August, that number started climbing rapidly, hitting 10,000 concurrent players on August 9 and falling just short of 20,000 yesterday.

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But It’s Not Real

Several weeks ago, Deadlock suffered from a series of high-profile leaks that revealed gameplay segments, the lineup of heroes, and details regarding the core gameplay loop. Despite that, and more than 18,000 concurrent players being logged in and actively playing the game, Valve has yet to formally announce the title.

It has been claimed that Deadlock is in the midst of an intense testing period that has adopted a unique operating model.

Through Steam, Valve is inviting some users to play the game and those users are then free to invite others, but the whole thing is under NDA and embargo, which is why we’ve not seen anything of the game since it was leaked back in May.

That hasn’t stopped players from discussing their experiences on social media, though.

How long will it be before Valve acknowledges Deadlock’s existence?

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