Dota 2’s player base is growing again

Dota 2 is quickly becoming one of the best esports in the world. To be fair, it has been for the past seven years. In the MOBA department, nothing comes close to it. It encapsulates everything that’s great about RPGs and everything that’s great about RTS games. And it delivers a unique experience.

Even people who leave negative reviews on Steam have hundreds or even thousands of hours in this game. Over the years, the Dota 2 community had ups and downs, reaching its maximum point around 2016: 13-14 million players and an average of 709.000 average concurrent players.

Then it started to die, little by little. The lowest point of the past four years was reached in January 2020. The game had just 379.000 average concurrent players that month. Then it went into a rollercoaster pattern, reaching 523.000 at the peak and around 400.000 at the bottom.

Now it’s back to 457.000 and the good news is that it’s growing. Even better news for the Dota 2 community is that a small portion of the LoL community is switching to Dota, angry by the disappointments caused by Riot Games in the last few years.

What makes Dota 2 amazing

Dota 2 is a life-long hobby. If you’re looking for something that’s easy to learn and will keep you busy for a few weeks, you’ve picked the wrong game. Starting to play Dota is like starting to train in mixed-martial arts. This game is absolutely huge. In total, you need to learn more than a thousand different concepts to get a basic understanding of it.

Sorry I had a low reaction LOL I wanted to ace the gank and rush the rosh (which worked!) https://t.co/FNTvxX9U8w

— Grubby (@followgrubby) August 13, 2023

However, you shouldn’t feel discouraged. After all, the famous Warcraft 3 and StarCraft 2 player Grubby has demonstrated over the past 12 months that you can be a new player and become a Divine ranked competitor in under 2000 games.

For most people, 2000 games will take around 18-24 months to play. But it’s quite encouraging to know that you can become really good (at the amateur level, of course) in such a short amount of time. The most important thing is to love the game. If it makes you feel like you want to become better at it, then it’s definitely for you.

Dota 2 features more than 120 heroes and hundreds of items that you can buy. Every single game is completely unique and will present a serious intellectual challenge, as well as a great opportunity to express your creativity.

Header: Valve