What does the future hold for Dota 2?

Dota 2 has had its ups and downs in 2020. At the moment, the future of this MOBA is uncertain as more and more players leave this game for other popular esports. But let’s not look too black…

So let’s take a quick look at tournament viewership and player count and try to discern if Dota 2 is dying… or already dead.

Dota 2 Tournament Viewership

Things have changed a lot when it comes to esports tournaments due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Dota 2 was also affected and by far the most popular Dota 2 event, The International, was postponed to August 2021. Despite these misadventures, the scene has remained resilient and has had a number of fairly successful online events throughout the year.

Here are the viewership numbers for popular events in 2020:

1. DreamLeague – Season 13: The Leipzig Major – 475,236 viewers

2. WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020 – 233,124 viewers

3. WePlay! Dota 2 Tug of War: Mad Moon – 295,110 viewers

4. DOTA Summit 12 – 149,697 viewers

5. ESL One Los Angeles 2020 Europe & CIS – 508,082 viewers

6. ESL One Birmingham 2020 Europe & CIS – 228,746 spectators

7. WePlay! Pushka League – 188,422 viewers

8. BEYOND EPIC Europe/CIS – 306,039 viewers

9. OGA Dota PIT – Season 2 Europe & CIS – 244,611 viewers

10. OMEGA League Europe Immortal Division – 412,391 viewers

11. ESL One Germany 2020 – 272,973 viewers

12. EPIC League – Season 2 Division 1 – 263,542 Zuschauer

As you can see from the numbers above, Dota 2 Esports is not even remotely dying. If we compare these numbers to other popular titles like CS:GO , Overwatch or even League of Legends , it’s easy to see that Dota 2 isn’t falling behind.

Dota 2 player count

In addition to League of Legends, Dota 2 is the go-to place for MOBA fans. Since this is a free-to-play game, there are a lot of players coming and going. Let’s take a look at the numbers for the last 5 years.

• 2015 players average: 961,737

• 2016 players average: 1,067,949

• 2017 players average: 1,007,451

• 2018 players average: 778,627

• 2019 players average: 874,888

• 2020 players on average: 616,415

As you can see, the number of players has dropped this year and we may even know why. The game is way too repetitive and after a while players get fed up and look for something else. If Valve adds something new to Dota 2, or at least shakes things up, the average player count could increase immediately. And let’s not forget that the game consistently ranks as the 2nd most played game on Steam in player stats.

If we just look at this year’s data, we can easily see that the game got a nice boost to its player base due to the coronavirus situation.

Despite the downward trend this year, new content has undeniably helped the game stabilize its monthly player count compared to the same months in previous years. The summer’s Aghanim’s Labyrinth event was followed around Halloween by Diretide 2020 , the first Diretide event since 2013.

These events, and the massive Cloud Forest update that introduced tons of changes, showed Valve’s renewed interest in keeping the game alive with fresh content. We’ll just have to wait and see if these efforts continue into 2021.