Valve has unveiled “City Never Sleeps,” a major content update for its tactical hero-shooter Deadlock. The massive expansion introduces six upcoming heroes, whose release order will be dictated by community votes beginning October 2. Alongside the new roster additions, the patch brings a sweeping visual overhaul, a streamlined HUD, and over 15,000 new audio and visual pings.
The update has driven a resurgence in players, pushing Deadlock well past its previous player count records. At the time of writing, there are 181,000 active players, with the update reaching a new all-time peak of 228,000 concurrent users—shattering the game’s previous record of 171,490 set in late 2024. Deadlock is currently the third-most-played game on Steam by concurrent players according to SteamDB, trailing only Steam mainstays CS:GO and Dota 2.
Despite this runaway success, Valve has yet to officially launch Deadlock. The game is officially an invite-only closed playtest without a release window. Current playtesters can invite anyone on their Steam friends list directly through the in-game main menu. Once invited, new players get instant access to install the game and unlimited invites to pass along to others.
Deadlock blends the fast-paced mobility and class personalities of Team Fortress 2 with the deep tactical framework of Dota 2, leaning much more heavily on its MOBA pedigree. Matches center on complex MOBA economies, dynamic laning phases, creep-soul denial mechanics, neutral farming, item-shop builds, and lane-pushing objectives that require deep macro strategy to win.
