Dota Underlord was well-liked when it launched back in June 2019. It got good reviews and it was a solid new addition along with Dota 2. But months after the release steam charts seem to tell a different story.
Dota Underlords is an auto battler which is chess inspired and also a very competitive title. As with Dota2, you can play as “heroes” on an 8×8 grid-shaped battlefield during a preparation phase. This game is perfect palate cleanser for Dota 2 fans or newcomers alike.
But months after the release now in 2020 the peak player base has fallen by around 90%. And the average player base has also been reduced by about 80%. So, it is not that hard to see that the initial success of the game didn’t make it that far. And player retention capability of this game is now in ruins.
What Happened to Dota Underlords
What happened to Dota Underlords can be a good case study on how not having a good unifying vision can ruin a game. After the release of this game, the Devs simply put updates after updates hoping something would stick. As it turned out, nothing really stuck. The Big Update made the game even worse. Not only did it barely change the meta well at first course, but it made the game way too long and added the jail mechanic.
Jail mechanic meant that a group of playable heroes would be locked out of the game. But they did some improvement with Items 2.0 and some other META. But at the end of the day TFT from Riot games were more successful and drove their players away.
Even though the game is still bringing in some players it is still losing a lot. The steam charts are portraying a sad picture of this game. I hope the dev team can make some changes that will make it more exciting for newcomers and player retention will be much better.