Dota has survived more than a decade and Dota 2 officially came out in 2013 (open beta in 2012). The short answer is No. In order to explain why Dota 2 is not dying we will need to look at several stats from Steam and Twitch.
Steam 2013 Dota 2
Dota 2 is finally coming out of beta and being officially released. During this year we average around 300,000 players. Many are still playing Dota 1 and probably not making the switch yet. Many heroes are yet to be implemented.
Steam 2016 Dota 2
From 2013 to 2016, Dota 2 experienced a steady increase in player number from 300,000 to an amazing 700,000. To put this into perspective the max average number of players Warframe, another popular game, has ever amassed is only 154,000 (Steam and other platforms like PS4 included) and by no means can we say it is dying.
Steam 2021 Dota 2
Fast forward to right now Dota 2’s average player base has now stabilized to 400,000. If you have played Dota 2 you probably know the ruthlessness of the old players who expect new players to perform well in matches. This can often be seen as toxic behaviour by newer/younger players.
Valve has a done a great job here to improve the experience and I think this has reflected positively on the number we see above.
Twitch Dota
1 million peak viewers on Twitch is just during The International we should discard that because this includes viewers from other games.
If you go on Twitch right now and look at the number of viewers for Dota 2 you might see a meager number like 50,000. Even if you find the viewership for the largest internationals you will notice that they only climb to maximum 150,000 average viewers. This number can easily deceive you into thinking Dota 2 is dying compared to other games like League of Legends.
Twitch viewership has nothing to do with the actual user base.
Firstly because Dota 2 players can spectate professional games from inside the game itself.
Secondly because most of the Dota 2 players, I think, are now probably in their 30s with thousands of hours invested in the game. I personally don’t find it enjoyable to look at a pro player playing a solo game on Twitch.
At this point you understand that a real Dota 2 match is played with between good teams and you will only be watching tournaments ( that too only big ones which competent teams).
Bonus: New Dota 2 Servers
If you are an African you already know this(like me). Valve has done great job adding more servers. For example, in the past we did not have a South African server so many of us had to queue in Europe. If you are from Europe and are now experiencing longer wait times it might be because now we have our own servers ?. Just kidding (not really though), this is a good sign for the future of Dota 2.
I really love this game and hope that it continues to live for at least another 2 decades. So far, no signs of Dota 2 dying!
