Dota Underlords’ peak player count drops by more than 90%

It looks like the ghost of Artifact’s failure has come back to haunt Valve. This time, it looks like Dota Underlords is going to be on the same sinking ship. First spotted by a Reddit user SharkyIzrod, the player base for Dota Underlords seems to have fallen by more than 90%. That is the peak player count. The average player count for the Auto Battler has fallen by 80%. 

The user got the data from Steam Charts. According to the data, when the game released in June 2019, the peak player count was 202,254 and the average player count was almost 76k that month. Compare that to the last 30 days, the average player count has fallen to around 11,000 and the peak player count only reached 18,664.  

This sharp decline is very concerning. It is also really ironical, since Auto Chess, which birthed Dota Underlords, actually skyrocketed the popularity of Dota 2, with many players downloading the game just to play the mod. This made the peak player count for Dota 2 reach well over a million. 

While Artifact died in one quick swoop (it now only averages 100 players), Dota Underlords’ death has been slow. This is despite the many updates Valve has released. In comparison, Riot’s Auto Battler Teamfight Tactics which is based on League of Legends reportedly registered a player count of 33 million in the month of September. 

It also coincides with the fall of the number of players in Dota 2. Though earlier this year it reached well over a million, last month it struggled. Dota 2’s player count has fallen to the lowest since 2014. It happened after the recent Outlanders update, which many professional players, Dota 2 commentators and talent and, fans were critical of.  

Whether it is just a bump in the road or Dota Underlords will meet the same fate as Artifact, remains to be seen.