Valve’s Deadlock has officially surpassed Team Fortress 2’s all-time concurrent-player record on Steam, marking a major milestone for a game that has yet to receive a full public release. Despite remaining in an invite-only playtest phase, the competitive shooter-MOBA hybrid continues to build momentum and attract a growing audience.

According to SteamDB data, Deadlock reached an all-time peak of 262,145 concurrent players on October 9, 2026. This surpasses Team Fortress 2’s previous record of 253,997 concurrent players, set in July 2023.

The achievement places Deadlock among Valve’s most popular games by peak concurrent player count on Steam. Only Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 have recorded higher peaks among the company's games.

For Team Fortress 2, the previous record came during its Summer 2023 update, which introduced new cosmetics, taunts, and 14 community-created maps. Despite launching in 2007, the long-running multiplayer shooter continues to attract players more than a decade later.

Deadlock first entered limited playtesting in August 2024. Since then, Valve has continued refining the experience through balance adjustments, gameplay changes, and new content.

The game's initial surge in popularity saw it reach 171,490 concurrent players in 2024. More recently, its player count climbed to 228,086 following the arrival of the City Never Sleeps update in late September 2026. The October 9 milestone added more than 34,000 players to that already impressive figure.

The latest update has introduced several additions, including a staggered rollout of six new heroes. Rather than releasing all six at once, Valve is introducing two heroes each week, with players voting on which pair should arrive next.

Rat King became playable on October 2, followed by Baba on October 6. Solomon, a wizard with a chess-inspired theme, joined the roster on October 9, the same day Deadlock established its new concurrent-player record.

Although the timing makes Solomon’s arrival a notable part of the milestone, there is no confirmed evidence that a single hero or feature directly caused the player surge. Instead, the game's concurrent-player numbers had been climbing steadily throughout the preceding two weeks.

Surpassing Team Fortress 2 is a significant achievement for Deadlock, particularly given its limited availability. The game has continued to grow without a full public launch, suggesting that its evolving roster and regular content updates are helping maintain player interest.

With more heroes scheduled to arrive and further development still underway, Deadlock has room to build on its current success. Whether it can eventually challenge the player-count peaks of Counter-Strike 2 or Dota 2 remains to be seen, but its latest record demonstrates that Valve's newest competitive experience is already attracting considerable attention.