The Quartero’s Curios event has triggered a big spike in Dota 2’s player count, and Valve’s strategy of isolating The International from the skin economy is justified yet again.
The International 2025 is fast approaching, and the period after the tournament is traditionally the most popular time of the year to play Dota. However, the release of Quartero’s Curios has already triggered the second-highest player count of 2025 so far at over 700,000 on August 6, 2025. The community’s response to the free skins signals to Valve that it can maintain its strict segregation between fancy cosmetics and the competitive circuit.
According to SteamDB, the game’s player count spiked up to 717,585 late on August 6. That’s the most Dota 2 players online at once since early January and the final release of Crownfall. After that event, the player count cratered to weekly peaks of around 600,000, occasionally spiking higher with balance updates. However, the new Curios event on August 6 finally tipped the scales. Compared to the week prior, it triggered an instant 8.21% increase.
Image Credit: SteamDB
The new event includes three hero sets and a voice-acted visual novel. It also dropped with 7.39d, a minor balance update.
Meanwhile, the player bump after The International 2024 last year was virtually nonexistent. During the final week of last year’s TI, the game’s player count went up by only 4.54%.
While previously Valve relied on the battle pass and The International to draw attention, the company now knows that it doesn’t have to release major events to generate casual interest. Just a handful of free skins can drum up the same hype for a fraction of the work. While the pomp and circumstance of TI certainly helped, it was always the arcanas taking center stage.
Why does Dota 2 have the battle pass anymore?
Valve stopped making battle passes for The International due to its production difficulty and financial opportunity cost.
Ever since Valve discontinued major battle passes for The International in 2023, players have been clamoring for their return. The developer explained in a blog post that the massive content drops were taxing for staff and warped both the casual and competitive scenes around a single event. Since then, the company has promised to deliver more regular content, rather than yearly battle passes.
Crownfall was the first big delivery, and it triggered multiple player count boosts throughout 2024 with each new act. Players logged on to read the story, grind the minigames, and earn several free skins. This resulted in a several major player count spikes throughout 2024 as opposed to a single eruption centered around TI.
Image Credit: Valve
By eliminating the giant battle pass, Valve freed up resources to create more casual-oriented events. Judging by player count, the experiment was a success.
The more cycnical take is that Valve did it for the money. 25% of all the money spent on the battle pass went to The International rather than the company’s profit. For The International 10, that was more than $40 million effectively donated to the competitive scene. TIs since have had significantly smaller prize pools, but fans still tune it to watch and the game gets a player count bump regardless.
Either way, Valve’s decision to separate the Dota 2’s in-game monetization from its competitive events was the correct business decision. Casual players get their skins and Valve rakes in 100% of the revenue from events like Crownfall. The only ones left high and dry are TI competitors, who, as much as the community celebrates them, are not Dota 2’s primary demographic.
