Deadlock hits 228,000 concurrent players after City Never Sleeps update

Deadlock, Valve's multiplayer shooter still in closed beta, has set a new Steam concurrent player record with over 228,000 players following the City Never Sleeps update.

The update introduces six new playable characters, including Rat King (described as "scrappy, regal, tenacious"), Deadman Danny, an explosives expert, and Baba, who drinks tea. Each character brings different strategies to the game.

The central map, based on New York City, has been redesigned with new environmental elements. The update also adds new objectives, improved voting systems, expanded item selection, and changes to existing game elements like Midboss, Guardians, and Walkers.

Valve's development team explained their approach in a statement: "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. 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."

The studio prioritized core gameplay improvements over cosmetic updates like hero remodels, which Valve plans to address later in early development. Deadlock remains invite-only, though the player count suggests strong interest in the title.