Dota 2’s peak player numbers are not what they used to be but the combination of Netflix’s anime series and some successful esports events could mark the beginning of a great new era for Valve’s popular MOBA title.
DOTA: Dragon’s Blood
The Dota 2 anime is about as high-profile as a cross-promotion tool can get, an animated fantasy series broadcast on the biggest online platform of the world with nearly guaranteed fan appeal. Better still, the accessibility of the show should encourage many people, especially existing anime fans, to give the game a try. Just consider franchises like Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh and you can immediately understand how a narrative piece of media can feed into the wider game, enabling a positive self-reinforcing cycle.
The second season of the show has already been confirmed, which should keep the intellectual property firmly in the limelight and continue generating interest in the game. The insanely deep pool of characters offers a ton of opportunities for those behind DOTA: Dragon’s Blood to keep things interesting for fans, guaranteeing a steady stream of new players.
Not many big video games can boast a full-fledged high-quality anime built around its world and characters, and Dragon’s Blood serves as a great way for Dota 2 to stand out in an otherwise crowded field of entertainment. As the number of competitors goes up each day, every advantage is valuable in the war for eyeballs.
Top tier DOTA tournaments return
Like every other facet of competition in the world, Dota 2 esports has also been hit hard by the pandemic. Though the esports industry was better suited to coping with COVID-19 than most, having the ability to transition online, not every game and tournament organizer did so in the same way. Competitive Dota lost its crown jewel for 2020, with The International 10 canceled, moved to August 2021 in Stockholm’s Avicii Arena. The event will offer a $40 million prize pool, the biggest ever of its kind.
With a whole extra year’s worth of results to consider (as the event was originally scheduled to run between August 18th and 23rd of last year), the Dota Pro Circuit results of the past year have been scrapped, with an entirely new system introduced to determine which teams get to participate at the showpiece event. A combination of strong regional online league-based competitions feeding into big LANs has gone a long way to ensure the stability and sustainability of the Dota 2 esports scene.
The recently concluded WePlay AniMajor tournament, the second of three Majors in the season, has peaked at over 645 000 viewers for the grand final between Evil Geniuses and PSG.LGD, the eventual winners, a tangible increase from the first Major of the season. Esports betting site Rivalry also reports a growing interest in Dota 2 betting, with the ongoing ESL One Summer event also attracting further eyeballs to the competitive scene of the game as we barrel towards the showpiece event in Stockholm and the $40 million on the line.
A better organized competitive scene and the growth of the non-endemic audience for DOTA 2 combine for a promising state when it comes to the player count of the most complicated MOBA title out there.
DOTA 2 player numbers: light on the horizon
Though DOTA 2 is nowhere close to its past eye-popping peak player numbers, slightly above 1.2 million concurrent Dire and Radiant pug stars in March 2016, the recent bounce back after a couple of months’ worth of bleeding is more than encouraging for fans of the game. Dota 2 Steamcharts stats show that the MOBA title is now back to its November 2020 numbers off the back of just two months’ worth of great growth in April and May.
Ultimately, Artifact memes aside, Valve has always been in it for the long haul, and the loyalty of DOTA’s core player base means that the game will inevitably start with a strong foundation when it comes to any sort of overhaul or update. Any uptick in the total player numbers should be considered with this in mind, and therefore should be seen as a significant step forward. Lest we forget: we’re talking about an almost eight-year-old game here.
Robert Griffith is a content and essay writer. He is collaborating with local magazines and newspapers. Robert is interested in topics such as marketing and history.
