Baba The Pigeon Lady Helps Deadlock's Player Count Hit New High

Deadlock Just Set An Incredible New Record Thanks To Baba The Pigeon Lady Valve Published Oct 7, 2026, 6:32 AM EDT Josh Coulson is an editor at TheGamer covering breaking news on everything from colorful platformers to the latest Lego sets. Primarily a news writer since 2018, Josh has covered just about every major game from the past decade. Now an editor, their focus has shifted to being the leading affiliate expert at the site, building relationships between TheGamer and global brands including Mattel, Funko, and The Pokemon Company. Sign in to your TheGamer account Deadlock's numbers have never really dipped, but they have most definitely spiked a few times these past few days thanks to the rollout of its City Never Sleeps update. The update will add six new characters to the game over the coming weeks, and the latest addition led to Valve’s popular MOBA setting a new concurrent player count record. Everyone Wants To Meet Baba Valve According to SteamDB, 236,730 people were all playing Deadlock at the same time at 2 pm PST on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. That is the exact time that Baba was added to the game. A vicious pigeon lady who is not to be trifled with, and the second of the six announced heroes coming via the new update. Baba’s arrival means the record Deadlock set just four days prior, when the City Never Sleeps update went live, didn’t last long before it got broken again. 228,000 people were playing when the first new character, The Rat King, joined the game on Friday, breaking the previous, longer-standing concurrent player count record by more than 50,000. It’s somewhat ironic that Baba has managed to outdo The Rat King when it comes to player count due to the way Valve determines the order in which the six new characters will be added. The Deadlock studio lets the players decide, and The Rat King won the vote. Even though Baba was the second favorite, more people showed up for her arrival, and on a school night, no less. Deadlock Is Still Invite-Only Even though Baba came second in the popular vote, the way in which Deadlock attracts new players does explain why more people were waiting to welcome her than The Rat King. Deadlock still operates on an invite-only basis. If you want to play, you need someone who has already been invited in to extend an invite to you, a process that will presumably remain in place until Deadlock leaves early access. That means there are more and more new players being invited to play Deadlock each day, particularly right now after a new update has been rolled out and more people are reaching out to their Deadlock-playing friends trying to get an invite. That number will have increased between Friday and Tuesday, hence Baba being the one to break the concurrent player record even though she didn’t get as many votes as The Rat King. If that pattern continues, Deadlock’s concurrent player record will be broken again on Friday. That’s when the third of the six new characters will arrive, and the growing number of people with access to Deadlock, combined with it being a Friday night, might mean the game hits 250,000 players for the first time. Systems Released TBA Developer(s) Valve Publisher(s) Valve Engine Source2 Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Steam Deck Compatibility Unknown