Image: Valve
Valve has not officially announced Deadlock yet, but it already has thousands of players.
Valve Software’s newest multiplayer shooter, Deadlock, is its worst-kept secret by a country mile. After several gameplay leaks earlier this year, Deadlock racked up a concurrent player count of over 18,000 this week. The game’s player count has only risen since last weekend’s concurrent peak of over 16,000, suggesting that a wave of new players are hopping into its closed testing period.
Despite these player statistics being clearly visible on SteamDB, Valve has opted against formally announcing the project or acknowledging its rise in popularity in any capacity.
Valve’s next game hits 18,000 concurrent players in closed testing
Valve’s next multiplayer game has gone through many phases of internal development, according to various leaks and rumours over the years. The game was previously known as Citadel and Neon Prime, but is now referred to as Deadlock in closed testing. The company has not announced the game to the public just yet, but recent gameplay leaks point to it being a 6v6 hero shooter with four-lane maps.
Despite Valve’s refusal to formally acknowledge Deadlock’s existence, the game has been quickly racking up players on Steam this month. According to SteamDB, the game peaked at over 16,000 concurrent players last weekend. That number has only risen this week, having hit an 18,254 concurrent player peak at the time of writing. PCGamer recently found that most of its heroes and hero abilities have been made public via SteamDB.
Plenty of gameplay footage and information from the game have also leaked online, an issue only exacerbated by its growing player count. According to comments on the Deadlock subreddit, anyone can access the game as long as they receive an invite from someone on their Steam Friends List. Judging by a recent report that the game now has over 200,000 players, this seems legitimate.
At this point, Valve’s refusal to acknowledge the game suggests that it has specific plans for its reveal - perhaps at The International 2024 this September. With a rumoured player count of 200,000 and rising, the game might already be off to a good start regardless of Valve’s plans.
The real question is: when will Valve reveal its new Half-Life game?
