Yo be fair a large and I do mean VERY large chunk of those players are in the Chinese custom games. It’s not abnormal for like a third or more of the player base of dota 2 at any given time to be playing the custom Chinese games.

Dota 2 is as much a games platform as it is a game it self. Much like warcraft 3 was, or roblox or fortnite is now.

There’s been instances where a new update for some of the more popular Chinese custom games can spike the number of people playing. Them to half the entire player base.

It’s very very fair to say dota 2 isn’t that popular. Cause the game itself isn’t… It’s custom game modes and gatchas are.

Hell there’s one custom game that’s literally a mobile gatcha game that i saw pulling over 60k players by itself.