Deadlock's City Never Sleeps Update Smashes Player Record

Valve's Deadlock hits a new all-time peak of 228,000 concurrent players after the City Never Sleeps update adds a New York map, six heroes and nine reworked Haunts.

Did you ever think a game still in early access could pull nearly a quarter-million players at once? Valve's Deadlock just did exactly that.

The hero shooter's massive "City Never Sleeps" update dropped and player numbers went through the roof. According to SteamDB, concurrent players shot past 228,000, the highest the game has ever seen since launch. Not bad for a title that's still invite-only.

So what's actually in this update? The headline act is a brand-new map set in a cursed, constantly mutating New York City. Valve says these streets "no longer look the way you remember them," blending early-to-mid 20th century city vibes with Deadlock's signature surreal, eerie style. There are plenty of environmental visual tweaks plus new gameplay features and accessibility options packed in too.

The old neutral creatures got a full makeover and a new name: Haunts. There are nine of them now, and they're wonderfully weird. Specimen is a severed hand in a glass jar. Past Dues is a ghost with library vibes. Gutter Ghouls are one-eyed walking trash bags. Barrel Mimics are barrels that move and might just explode on you. Stage Hands are puppets controlled by ghostly hands. Crabbage Pots draw on New York urban legends with a Little Shop of Horrors twist. Festival Spirit lives inside a Chinese lantern. Shrooms are laid-back mushroom mages. And Underhands look like gargoyles that might pick your pocket.

Six new heroes are also on the way: Nurse Harrow, Rat King, Solomon, Deadman Danny, Baba and Violet. Most lean hard into that NYC flavor. Rat King has a worshipping "Pizza Rat" tagging along, Solomon loves competitive chess, and Baba is an old lady who hangs out with pigeons, a genuinely rare sight in a hero shooter. Here's the fun part: they won't all arrive at once. You can vote in-game to decide which hero joins the playable roster first.

Valve also got unusually candid about where Deadlock actually stands. The game is still in early development, with plenty of temporary art assets, experimental gameplay and ongoing localization work (Simplified Chinese interface only for now). After January's "Old Gods New Blood" update, there's still a ton to do, and the team isn't rushing into polish phases like reworking old hero art. Instead of focusing on a few core features, they're now developing multiple things in parallel, including a character progression system, hero and base customization, big item reworks, new items and even experimental alternate game modes. Whether those make it in depends on test results, though Valve says feedback has been positive so far. Mid-lane bosses, certain map layouts, and guards and mechs are all on the list but haven't been started yet.

One catch: Deadlock is still limited access. Only friends invited by players who already have test access can get in. With numbers this high heading into the weekend, though, a new record could be right around the corner.

Will you be voting for Rat King or Baba first? What do you think of that New York map?