A tale as old as time. Two long standing rivals dominating a subset of an industry. The only other real competition being each other. Dota 2 vs League of Legends. The grandfather of a genre, facing off against the most recognizable MOBA of all time. 

The games have been compared in every way since they had both been released. Original Dota being a mod created for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft created in 2003.  It laid the foundation for the MOBA genre that we know today. The launch from developer Valve in 2013, Dota 2 has consistently placed in the top five of all Steam platform games per Steamcharts.com.

On the other hand, developer Riot Games launched their flagship title in 2009. From Twinfinte.net, League of Legends ranked fifth in player base among all games in 2022. Steadily increasing in monthly average players in these first 2023 months, League dominates the Moba community.

Trends from esports.net show both games on diverging paths. Early 2023 Dota 2 has once again reached an all time low in average players, barely scraping the 500 thousand mark daily. Far from its peak in 2016. Contrarily League of Legends aims for new heights hitting peaks of more than 32 million daily players in 2022. These statistics paint a very grim picture for Dota. 

The general consensus from the MOBA community is League is more new-player friendly than Dota. Willing to adapt and simplify mechanics to fit a larger audience and that it does. With a widening gap, Dota the number two MOBA has a reputation for a hardcore fan base and a stubborn mindset when it comes to changing from original gameplay.

First impressions are key. Crowd sourcing from both the Buffalo State and the University at Buffalo esports communities, I noticed a few common trends. Players starting with a particular MOBA tend to stay within that game. The most crossover was players starting with Dota 2 then promptly switching to League within a week or two of gameplay.

The reason for this being the complexity of Dota hurts its competitive viability. I asked member of the community Michael Widman who has spent a generous amount of time on both titles. 

“Once players get a critical amount of hours into the game, learning basic mechanics, micro, items and fundamental aspects of gameplay only then the game becomes exponentially more rewarding to play.” Explaining that the same reason for playing both titles are the same.  The intrigue of mastering such a game. Noting that mastering Dota means understanding the hyper-complex nature of 124 heroes and thousands of items. 

Widman went on to say “For League, the game just takes less time to understand.” Adding that mastery of League is more focused on in-game mechanics: farming better and pathing efficiently. 

Widman concluded with “While all of that still exists in Dota it’s not what a dota player would complain about when they die.” That of course would be blamed on power levels of the heroes based on the current patch’s meta. 

I’ve found my MOBA experience much different. I started playing Dota in January 2017, since then poured thousands of hours into Dota. With League, I downloaded it shortly after Dota but didn’t start playing till 2020 and have not put in ample time. Home is where the heart is if I play a MOBA now, it’s Dota. Familiarity is key relearning a different niche I found very difficult. While yearning for Dota when playing League I missed the game mechanics. Denying creeps, branching item choices, and a good ole blink dagger. The things that make Dota, Dota.

This complexity issue is the exact reason I believe Dota 2 is the better game. The rewarding nature of learning in a more complex environment. Taking a little more time to learn complicated nuances, will give a player a better experience in the long run of playing a game.

Dwindling player numbers is cause for concern. However, morale is holding for the community. New patches still surge the player base and whenever TI season comes around the community has raised historic prize pool numbers.

Dota developer Valve has just announced the next massive content update for their other flagship title Counter Strike with source two. This could mean good things for Dota fans in the future. Dota has been stagnating in version seven since late 2016. Interestingly enough the switch caused record high active player numbers.

 Perhaps with time on their hands, Valve will give Dota the revamp it needs to compete with the industry giant that is League of Legends. Or allow a stagnating game with the largest competitive esports scene get blobbed up within League and cut its lifespan short.