Deadlock Sets New All-Time CCU On Steam, Surpassing Team Fortress 2

Deadlock Isn't Even Out Yet And It Has Already Broken Team Fortress 2's Record Custom image created by James Lucas. Published Oct 10, 2026, 5:54 AM EDT James Lucas is an Executive Editor at TheGamer who has worked in professional journalism since 2018. A Newcastle University graduate with a degree in Journalism, Media, and Culture, they have written hundreds of guides, news stories, and original reports, with bylines in IGN, NME, GaymingMag, and VG247, sourcing interviews with studio heads, legendary industry figures, prominent actors, and more. An expert on FPS games, Soulslikes, RPGs, and survival horror, James has intimate knowledge of a wide variety of titles, providing in-depth coverage and exclusive profiles. Some of the games they have extensively covered include: Half-Life 3, Counter-Strike, Elden Ring, and Fallout. They pride themselves on their consistently thorough research, leveraging nearly a decade of industry experience. You can reach them at James.t@thegamer.com Deadlock has just overtaken Team Fortress 2's all-time peak concurrent player count, despite still being invite-only and in "early development." Valve's new MOBA hero shooter hybrid has set a new CCU of 262,145, narrowly overtaking Team Fortress 2's record of 253,997 - which was set in 2023. The reason for that impressive milestone is the release of Solomon, who can turn a chunk of the map into a playable chessboard, where you can use a knight to give your allies barriers or hurl rooks to batter your enemies, with a queen ult that levels the grid. Not to mention that reloading merely resets the board. As someone who is at best okay at chess, and admittedly terrible at Deadlock, I think I'll steer clear, but watching skilled Solomon players work their magic is moreish. Considering Deadlock is still "limited access" through a friend referral program, it's wild to see hundreds of thousands of players pouring in at once. To put that figure into perspective, it's currently the fifth most-played game on Steam: Counter-Strike 2–1.2 million Dota 2–917,000 PUBG: Battlegrounds–709,000 AION 2–356,000 Deadlock–262,000 Right now, it ranks above Apex Legends, Wardogs, Arc Raiders, and Rust. But even more impressively, it sits comfortably in the top 100 all-time Steam games at #71. Solomon, Baba, And The Rat King: Why Deadlock Is Back On Top Valve isn't done with the 'City Never Sleeps' update, either. Solomon marks the halfway point for the six new heroes still being rolled out. Players can vote next Tuesday at 2pm PDT to decide who gets added next, joining Solomon, Baba, a "notorious pigeon lady" who steals the spirits of her enemies with a spool of yarn, and the Rat King, who can summon a loyal mischief of rats to swarm enemies. Nothing says occult New York like rodents and chess masters, eh? As for where the game currently stands, Valve had this to say: "After the Old Gods New Blood update, we felt that there was still a good amount of work we wanted to do on the core game itself before we moved onto more polish phases of the game development (like updating older hero artwork). Unlike previous updates where our efforts were more singularly focused on the key parts of that update, this year we've been working on several different things in parallel. "Some others are things we've been working on in the last few months alongside this update. This even includes things like progression and hero/hideout customizations, as we feel those are features we want to be able to adjust and significantly change based on feedback before the game is fully released. There are also other things we've been working on recently that are more speculative (as in we aren't 100% sure if they will be released or not based on how playtesting goes, though results so far have been promising) like large item redesigns/additions and alternate game modes that expand the scope of the game." In other words, Deadlock is still firmly a work in progress. Progression systems, customization options, item changes, and alternative game modes are all being tested or considered, meaning the current version could look substantially different by the time it officially releases. Systems Released TBA Developer(s) Valve Publisher(s) Valve Engine Source2 Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Steam Deck Compatibility Unknown