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Is Team Fortress 2 Dead? The State of the Game

Is Team Fortress 2 Dead? The State of the Game

Team Fortress 2 was perhaps one of the biggest online PvP shooters back when it was first released in 2007. However, it has been 15 years since that time, and many people now wonder if the game is dying or if it is even worth picking up right now in 2022. We’re here to answer just that question.

Team Fortress 2 is not a dead game. It is still ranked 7th on Steam’s most played games list and has a roaring fanbase and active community. However, the developers have stopped providing proper updates to the game for a while, which has caused the game to stagnate and bleed players over time.

There is quite a bit of nuance when it comes to whether Team Fortress 2 is a dying or dead game. We’ll be discussing its various aspects in far more detail throughout this article, and giving you all the information you need regarding the state of the game right now.

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Is Team fortress 2 Dead?

This is a marketing image that was released by Valve for Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 Marketing Image

Team Fortress 2 was a game that was released in 2007 and has thus been within the gaming landscape for upwards of 15 years. This is a significant amount of time for any game to be active, and have players engage with its various systems or modes of play.

However, Team Fortress 2 despite its long and storied existence has not faltered to the depths of scraping together players to engage with its games. The game still has a consistent player base and is among the most popular multiplayer online shooters to play on Steam.

Steam Analytics?

This is a screenshot of the top gams ranking on Steam by virtue of their player count number.
List of Top Games ordered by player-count on Steam

Team Fortress 2 has its home on Valve’s Steam platform. Thus if we were to see how well the game was still doing then we would have to observe its ranking on the list of top games that are currently being played on the platform.

As you might notice from the list provided above Team Fortress 2 has an astounding seventy-three thousand active players. Team Fortress 2 is just beneath Destiny 2, another popular online multiplayer game, and Grand Theft Auto V, which is a single-player game with various multiplayer online elements.

Simply being among the top 10 games most played on Steam is impressive enough, but having over seventy thousand active players is great because it means the game numbers aren’t merely bloated, but is being engaged by the community itself.

Team Fortress 2 Community

Perhaps one of the major reasons why Team Fortress 2 has survived and thrived for so many years is that it has an incredibly dedicated community that loves its rich and rewarding gameplay. How you can judge the engagement of the community with the game itself by looking at its various social media platforms.

When you look at sites like Reddit, Twitter, and Youtube you can find a sizeable community that is constantly engaging with each other and the various game systems. They discuss tactics, top weapon usage, and even which maps are the best to play on and which are subpar.

If we take a gander at the official Team Fortress 2’s Youtube Channel then we’ll notice that they have amassed over 1.18 million subscribers. This is incredibly impressive, but what’s even more interesting is that on average their videos can rack up 2 to 3 million views, meaning that there is an interest to play the game among its community.

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Screenshot of Team Fortress 2 Youtube Channel

Their other social media pages are similarly being followed and liked. Team Fortress 2’s Twitter is also heavily active and has over 300k followers. Moreover, the posts made by their Twitter are often easily able to achieve 5k to 10k Likes. Demonstrating the game’s activity on these sites.

Screenshot of Team Fortress 2’s Twitter page

Finally, we’ll talk about Team Fortress 2’s Reddit. Which has over 10k active participants and sees posts being uploaded regularly. Players share clips from their matches, funny moments, and even grievances with the game. And Reddit is very alive for a game that has been out since 2007.

Screenshot of Team Fortress 2’s Reddit page

Why Do People Think Team Fortress 2 Is Dying?

Despite the popularity of the game on their various Social media sites, there is still a common perception that Team Fortress 2 is a game that is slowly dying. There are of course a few reasons for this, but perhaps the 2 more important reasons are the lack of developer support and the insurgence of bots and cheating.

Lack of Developer Support

There was once a time when team Fortress 2 would get regular updates from the development team. There would be various content drops that expanded the scope and size of the game and provided new classes and guns for the player base to play with. However, this influx in content has been slowly declining.

The last time that the development team released an update for the game was over 6 months ago, back in March of 2022, and since there there have been several issues, bugs, glitches, and problems that have remained unaddressed by the development team.

Moreover, despite the active community the player base hardly gets any response for their feedback. This has led many players to believe that the development team simply doesn’t care about the game, and have opted to quit instead.

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The Bots and Hacking problem in Team Fortress 2

A popular image shared amongst the community of Team Fortress 2.
Image of Character from Team Fortress 2

The second major problem that is hounding the Team Fortress 2 players right now, and that is a major reason for the exodus of many players, is the excessive botting and hacking issue in Team Fortress 2.

Most of the online forums as well as Reddit posts highlight and talk about the issue of hackers in the game. This issue is compounded with the previous one we talked about, regarding the lack of developer updates and support.

This means that most hackers and bots can run rampant in matches, and many players feel like it comes with the cost of the game’s integrity. If matches don’t matter because of hackers and bots then what’s the point of playing them? These issues are certainly plaguing the Team Fortress 2 players right now.


And that’s all there is to it folks. Ultimately, Team Fortress 2 is not a dead game, but it might die if the development team does nothing about the rampant issues that are plaguing the player base. If more communication is given, and more consumer support is provided then it could save the game from a worse fate.

Till next time! Ciao.