When a development studio upgrades a game with an update, the idea is to improve on the experience but the underlying aim is to increase the user base. However, this was unexpectedly not the case with Dota 2.
With the release of DOTA 2 Reborn eyes are on the performance of the game to see how the changes are being accepted by the games community. While this update should be a positive move it looks like the new bugs it brought with it may be holding the game back.
Perhaps the most worrying statistic for DOTA 2 can be seen on SteamCharts a site which allows us to look at the player usage of games on Steam. What it reveals is that in August 2015 there was an average of 606,944.0 players on the game. This was a gain of +51,954.0 over July 2015 which was at 554,991. In the last 30 days (September) this number has shrunk down to 510,531.6 which is a difference of -96,412.4.
That is almost a 16 percent decrease!
For a month that has seen such an important update to the game, this may be a worrying turn. There are always teething problems with new releases and obviously there are some with Reborn. Hopefully they won’t do too much damage to DOTA 2 and its community.
One thing that we should also note is the time of year that this is taking place. As you’ll notice the fluctuations in the amount of people playing is over the last few months, and this is the school holidays. Arguably there will be more people playing in August when there is no school, so this could be a reason for the sudden change.
What will be interesting to see is how the statistics continue to change over time. Reborn has obviously had an impact on the game, but this will improve as fixes are applied to the game. We may see player numbers improve as the game becomes more stable.
What are your thoughts on the DOTA 2 Reborn statistics? Let us know below.
