If you’ve been hyped to jump into Valve’s new 5v5 hero shooter Deadlock with your whole friend group, you’ve probably wondered how many friends can you invite to Deadlock before hitting a hard lobby limit. A lot of new players run into frustrating errors when they try to pull in their entire Discord server for a casual match, and it’s not always clear what the official caps are for different game modes. I’ve been testing the lobby system extensively since the closed beta launch, so I’ve got all the up-to-date info straight from in-game testing and official dev updates to help you plan your next game night.
How Many Friends Can You Invite to Deadlock for Standard Matches
The exact invite limit depends entirely on what type of match you’re planning to play. For standard public unrated matchmaking, you can invite up to 4 other friends to join your party, making a full 5-person team that queues together against other random groups. This is the highest limit for public matchmaking, and it works for both casual unrated matches and the faster 3v3 quick play modes if you’re not looking to commit to a full 40-minute 5v5 game.
If you’re playing ranked mode, the limit is much lower to prevent smurf stacking and keep matchmaking fair. You can only invite 1 other friend for ranked duo queue, and full 5-person stacks are not allowed in ranked play at this time. Valve has noted they may adjust this limit in future updates, but as of the latest patch, this rule is strictly enforced.
For private custom lobbies where you’re playing against only people you invite, you can invite up to 9 other friends to fill both 5-person teams for a full 10-player match. I tested this limit last week with my own friend group, and I was able to get 9 people in with no issues, but when I tried to add a 10th, I got an immediate “lobby full” error that wouldn’t clear until someone left. Crossplay friends on Steam Deck count the same as PC players towards these limits, so there’s no separate cap for cross-platform invites.
Special Lobby Modes That Change Invite Limits
Standard 5v5 matches aren’t the only option in Deadlock, and some special modes have different invite caps that are easy to miss if you don’t check your settings first. The 3v3 quick play mode, for example, has a public queue party limit of 2 friends, so you can invite 2 people to make a full 3-person stack to queue together. Custom 3v3 lobbies let you invite up to 5 friends total, split between the two 3-person teams.
Modded custom lobbies, which are created using the game’s built-in workshop tools, can have even higher limits depending on the creator’s settings. Modded custom lobbies can have higher invite limits of up to 12 players for free-for-all or other non-standard modes, but these matches don’t count towards your progression or ranked stats. Keep in mind that these modded limits are set by the lobby host, not the game’s official rules, so you’ll need to check the mod description to see how many people can join.
Limited-time event modes also sometimes have different invite limits. For example, the recent 1v1 duel event let you invite 1 friend at a time for private matches, with no option for larger groups. Always check the event details before you send out invites, as event limits can change without much advance notice from the dev team.
Common Mistakes That Block You From Inviting Friends
Even if you’re well under the official invite limit, you might run into errors when trying to add friends to your lobby. Most of these issues are easy to fix once you know what’s causing them, and I’ve run into almost all of them at one point or another while playing with my group.
- Your lobby is set to ranked mode: If you have ranked selected, you can only invite 1 other friend, even if you meant to queue for unrated. Double check your mode selection before sending invites to avoid having to turn people away.
- One of your friends has a pending party invite from another group: They’ll need to leave or decline that existing invite before they can accept yours, even if they’re not actively in another lobby.
- You’re on a different game patch version: If one of your friends hasn’t updated their Deadlock client to the latest version, they won’t be able to join your lobby, and you’ll get a vague “version mismatch” error that doesn’t explain the problem clearly.
- Your privacy settings block friend invites: If you set your lobby to private, only people you directly invite can join, but if your profile is set to “do not disturb”, you might not even see incoming join requests from people you didn’t pre-invite.
I ran into that patch version issue last month when I was trying to play with a friend who had auto-updates turned off on Steam. We spent 10 minutes confused why he couldn’t join, until we noticed his client was still on the previous build. It’s a tiny detail that’s easy to miss, but it’s one of the most common reasons for invite errors right now.
Workarounds for Larger Friend Groups Who Want to Play Together
If you have more than 9 friends who want to play Deadlock at the same time, you don’t have to leave people out. There are a few easy, TOS-compliant workarounds that let you include everyone in your game night without a lot of extra hassle. I’ve used all of these with my 18-person Deadlock Discord group, and they all work seamlessly.
The simplest workaround is to run two separate custom lobbies at the same time. Split your group into two sets of 10, and have two different hosts create lobbies. You can even rotate players between lobbies between matches so everyone gets to play with different people, instead of being stuck on the same team all night. We do this for our weekly game nights, and it keeps things fresh for everyone.
Another option is to use the spectator slots available in all custom lobbies. Standard custom lobbies have up to 6 extra spectator slots that don’t count towards the 10 player limit. Friends who don’t get picked for the first match can spectate, commentate, or jump in when someone wants to take a break. Spectators can also chat with all players in the lobby, so they don’t feel left out of the fun while they wait for their turn to play.
For larger groups, you can also organize a mini tournament with your friends. Split everyone into teams of 5, run a simple bracket, and use custom lobbies for each match. We did this a few weeks ago for a friend’s birthday, and everyone got to play at least 3 matches over the course of 2 hours. You can even add small silly prizes for the winning team to make it more fun, like picking the game mode for the next game night.
So when you’re planning your next game night, the answer to how many friends can you invite to Deadlock depends entirely on the mode you’re playing, with a max of 9 for standard custom lobbies, 4 for public unrated queues, and 1 for ranked. If you have a bigger group, the workarounds we covered make it easy to include everyone without a lot of extra hassle. Always double check your lobby settings before sending out invites, so you don’t end up having to turn friends away at the last minute. I’ve had some of my best gaming moments in big Deadlock lobbies with my friends, and a little bit of planning goes a long way to making sure everyone has a good time.