Industry

Deadlock tops 303,000 players on Steam as the painter Violet joins, and it's still invite-only

By PPRGaming · October 17, 2026

Official Deadlock key art for the new hero Violet: a painter in a red beret and apron sweeping a brush through a purple streak of ink, with the Violet name written in brush script
Image: Valve

Deadlock just had its biggest day yet, and you still can’t buy it. After Valve added the new hero Violet on October 16, the game hit 303,347 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB figures reported by Destructoid. That makes it one of the most-played games on the platform, and Destructoid points out it’s now bigger than Team Fortress 2 ever got, even though Deadlock is still a closed, invite-only test that you can’t find in the Steam store.

Who’s Violet? Valve introduced her on Steam as a painter who fights with Living Ink that powers up her bullets. Her kit, in Valve’s words:

  • Flow State sends her ink toward danger to deal damage, or away from it for a quick getaway.
  • Still Life lets her “truly capture her enemies’ likeness,” which PCGamesN counts among the tools that make her a map-manipulating menace.
  • Abstract Landscape, her ultimate, surrounds her and anyone nearby with what Valve calls “her biggest and most ambitious piece yet.”

One hero left: Violet is the fifth of six heroes in the City Never Sleeps update. Valve has been releasing them two a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, since October 2, with players voting on the order in the new pregame lobby, Inven Global notes. The final hero, Nurse Harrow, arrives Tuesday, October 20 at 2 p.m. PDT (5 p.m. ET).

The climb: When City Never Sleeps first went live, Deadlock hit what was then a record of 228,086 players, Beebom reported. Each new hero has kept pushing that number up. Beyond the heroes, the update reworked much of the map with four new districts, revamped the neutral enemies, overhauled the shop and HUD, and added more than 15,000 new and updated ping voice lines.

PPR take: Valve is running a live-service launch without ever calling it one. Weekly hero drops plus community votes keep people logging in, and a 300,000-player peak for a game you need a friend’s invite to play says the demand is there whenever Valve decides to open the doors. If Nurse Harrow sets another record on Tuesday, don’t be surprised.

Sources