Reasons revealed for the first major drop in Dota 2 player count in seven years

The recent drop in Dota 2 player count by more than 60,000 users is linked to Valve banning inactive accounts. These accounts were mainly used in custom game modes to artificially boost activity.

Custom modes created by Chinese developers with malicious applications also appeared in the game and high player counts attracted users to download them.

The most popular custom games include Dota Auto Chess, Overthrow and Custom Hero Chaos, where player counts previously exceeded 10,000 in each mode. Currently, this number does not exceed 7,000. You can learn more about the best custom games in our article.

One of the data miners, Kirill Fay Serdyukov, noted that a significant portion of the game’s player count is generated by bots, especially in custom modes, and does not reflect the actual number of real players.

The game’s player count remains at a fairly solid level despite the lack of new content. However, it should be taken into account that a large portion of the player base is likely made up of bots used in custom games.

Additional research was conducted by Team Liquid analyst and technical director Ben Noxville Steenhuisen. He analyzed match statistics in the Ability Draft mode and concluded that nearly a quarter of all games are bot matches in a 5v5 format, likely aimed at account boosting and resale.

It is worth noting that this is not the first wave of mass bans. Six months ago, Valve carried out a similar cleanup, banning more than 75,000 accounts that were involved in match-fixing and smurfing.

Despite regular bans, the issue of MMR inflation in Dota 2 remains relevant. Many professional players and analysts believe that the game needs a full MMR reset, otherwise it will continue to stagnate.

Earlier, Cyberscore reported that the spring season “Quartero's Curios” has started in Dota 2.