Dota 2 averaged 617,078 players in TI month, its busiest since October 2016

Dota 2 averaged 617,078 concurrent players on Steam in August 2026, its highest monthly average since October 2016, according to SteamCharts. August was the month The International came back to Shanghai.

The peak matched the mood. At its busiest moment in August, 981,123 people were playing at once. SteamCharts has not logged a higher monthly peak since November 2022, when Dota touched 990,057.

A quick note on what these figures measure: SteamCharts tracks concurrent players, meaning people in the game at the same moment. They are not total accounts or monthly active players, so the real player base is larger than any of these numbers.

How many people played Dota 2 during TI 2026?

Dota 2 averaged 617,078 concurrent players on Steam in August 2026, the TI month, with a peak of 981,123. That beat last year's TI month by about 6% on average.

This year Valve moved its world championship back to China and back to August. The Group Stage ran August 13 to 16, and the main event followed at SPD Bank Oriental Sports Center from August 20 to 23.

It ended with a show. Team Spirit beat Team Vision in a five-game Grand Final, and Valve says the deciding game ran for about an hour.

The fair comparison is last year's TI month. TI 2025 in Hamburg ran from September 4 to 14, 2025. That September averaged 580,821 players with a 953,869 peak. August 2026 beat it by about 6% on average and by 27,254 players at peak.

Why did the Dota 2 player count rise in summer 2026?

From May's low of 422,693, the average rose three months in a row, a 46% jump by August. The climb lined up with the Dark Carnival, TI predictions and fantasy, and TI itself.

2026 started busy. February averaged 597,010 players. Then came a spring slump: the average fell 20% in March and bottomed out in May at 422,693, the quietest month of the year so far.

From there it rose three months in a row: up 10.3% in June, 17.1% in July and 13.1% in August. That adds up to a 46% jump from May to August.

The calendar lines up with Valve's summer releases. The Dark Carnival went live on June 25 with a fully voiced story starring Legion Commander and Hoodwink, five Automaton Personas and 20 new hero sets. On July 30, Valve added TI predictions, fantasy and supporter bundles.

Player counts cannot tell us which of these pulled people in. They only show that the curve went up while all of it was live. Year over year, August 2026 was about 16% busier than August 2025, which averaged 532,355.

Is Dota 2 losing players after TI?

Only a little. The last 30 days averaged 571,501 players, down 7.4% from August, but still about 35% above May and only 1.6% below last year's TI month.

The post-TI dip showed up on time. Over the last 30 days, SteamCharts shows an average of 571,501 players, with a peak of 919,002.

For a live snapshot, we asked Valve's own Steam Web API. At 14:46 UTC on September 30, it reported 782,089 players in Dota 2. SteamCharts listed a 24-hour peak of 800,954.

Even after the dip, the numbers hold up. The all-time record is still far away: 1,291,328 players in March 2016.

What comes next

• TI effigies: Valve said the Gold-tier team effigy replaces your regular effigy through the end of September, so its promised run ends with this month.
• Dark Carnival: Valve called it an ongoing event, but it has not announced the next part. Valve's last Steam announcement was patch 7.41f on September 15.
• The October test: the first full month after TI will show how much of the summer crowd stays.