Deadlock surpasses Team Fortress 2's all-time concurrent player count peak as it adds a chess wizard

Valve's latest multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, Deadlock, has surpassed Team Fortress 2's all-time concurrent player peak with 262,145 simultaneous players. This new high, reported by SteamDB, is particularly impressive considering Deadlock is still in an invite-only test phase. The game added six new heroes recently, with the chess wizard Solomon being the one to push the count past Team Fortress 2's peak of 253,997 players.

Although Team Fortress 2's peak records include player numbers from Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, Deadlock's achievement is still remarkable given the challenging environment of breaking into the MOBA space. The game's success can be attributed to its novelty, particularly the chess-themed hero Solomon who creates a different historic game state with each reload, depending on the number of bullets loaded onto the field. This unique feature has fueled the game's momentum since its leak two years ago.