While Dota 2’s playerbase has been sadly dwindling over the last year or so, February 2020 saw a surprise surge in players that meant the game has hit its highest average player count in over six months.
According to Steam Charts, Dota 2 – which last month posted its lowest figures since December 2013 – saw its average player count increase by over 27,000 people, which is up 7.14% on January. The numbers show that on average 405,978 players would be playing Dota 2 each day in February, which is the highest that figure has been since September 2019.
The spike in player numbers seems unprecedented, with only one major esports event in February (the We!Play Tug of War: Mad Moon, which was won by Team Secret) and very little in the way of game changing updates or added features dropping. However, could a case of The International nostalgia have motivated people to hop back into a few games of Dota?
True Sight, the documentary retelling the story of TI9 where OG won its second Aegis in a row, dropped right at the end of January, giving fans an in depth and behind the scenes look at the biggest and most significant Dota 2 moment of the year.
It could be that a throwback to the good old times of TI whetted Dota fans’ appetites to start playing again themselves.
Interestingly though, the highest peak of players in February came right at the end of the month on February 29, with over 663,000 players on the servers at once. This could potentially mean March is on course to see those player count numbers increase yet again.
