If you’ve been seeing clips of Valve’s new MOBA Deadlock blow up across TikTok and Twitch, your first question might be how many people can play deadlock with your friend group before you all download it. Unlike many competitive MOBAs that lock you into fixed team sizes, Deadlock has a lot more flexibility for casual play sessions than you might expect. I’ve spent 40+ hours testing every lobby type over the past two months, so I’ve got all the exact player counts you need to plan your next game night.
How Many People Can Play Deadlock In Official Matchmaking Modes?
Official competitive and casual lobbies have fixed player counts to keep matches balanced and fair for all participants. Standard casual and ranked Deadlock lobbies support 10 total players, split evenly into two teams of 5. This is the core game mode that Valve designed for competitive play, so you’ll get the most polished, balanced experience when you stick to these sizes for official queues.
If you’re queuing for ranked play below Diamond rank, you can still queue as a 4-stack, but the game will prioritize matching you against other 4-stacks instead of groups of solos to keep matches fair. You can’t queue as a 4-stack in high-elo ranked to avoid putting solo players at a disadvantage against coordinated groups. Casual play has no such restrictions, so you can queue with any combination of 1 to 5 friends without running into issues.
You also don’t have to worry about skill level gaps in casual play, as the matchmaking will adjust to find opponents around the average rank of your group. That means even if you have a brand new player and a Diamond ranked player in the same group, you’ll still get matched against teams of similar skill overall.
Player Limits For Custom Deadlock Lobbies
If you’re not playing official matchmaking, custom lobbies give you way more flexibility to adjust player counts to fit your group. Custom lobbies can support up to 16 total players at once, which is perfect for larger game nights or small community tournaments. You can split these players any way you want, from 1v1 practice matches all the way up to chaotic 8v8 team fights, and leave any remaining slots open for spectators.
You can also adjust game rules in custom lobbies to match your group’s skill level, like turning off friendly fire, lowering cooldown times, or increasing health pools to make the game more fun for new players. I’ve hosted custom lobbies for groups of 12 where half the players had never touched a MOBA before, and adjusting the rules made the game accessible for everyone without boring the more experienced players.
If you don’t have enough people to fill both teams, you can add AI bots of varying difficulty levels to fill the gaps, so you don’t have to wait for more people to join to start playing. Bots are also a great option if you want to practice new heroes or test out team compositions with a small group before you jump into ranked play.
Rules For Playing Deadlock With Large Friend Groups
If you’ve got a group of 6+ friends who all want to play together, there are a few unwritten rules and platform limitations you should keep in mind to avoid headaches. I’ve messed up enough large lobby setups to know what works and what doesn’t, so these tips will save you a lot of time when you’re planning your next game night:
- Stick to custom lobbies for groups larger than 5: Official matchmaking won’t let you queue with more than 5 players on a single team, so custom lobbies are your only option for bigger groups.
- Turn off cross-play if you’re mixing Steam and console players: Some console versions have lobby size limits when cross-play is enabled, so toggling it off can unlock the full 16-player cap.
- Assign a lobby host with a stable internet connection: The lobby host’s ping dictates server performance for all players, so pick someone with a wired connection if you’re running a full 16-person lobby.
- Enable drop-in/drop-out play for casual sessions: This lets friends join or leave mid-game without forcing the entire lobby to restart, which is perfect for low-stakes game nights where people might come and go.
I’ve made the mistake of trying to queue an 8-person group for official matchmaking before, and the game just kicked us back to the main menu every time, so save yourself the frustration and head straight to custom lobbies for big groups. If you have more than 16 people who want to play, you can run two separate lobbies and rotate players between games to keep everyone included.
Common Player Count Issues And How To Fix Them
Even if you know the official player limits, you might run into issues with lobby sizes from time to time. Most of these issues have simple fixes that only take a minute to resolve, so you don’t have to scrap your game night over a small error.
The most common player count error happens when you try to queue a 4-stack for ranked play above Diamond rank. Valve added this restriction in a recent update to stop coordinated 4-stacks from bullying solo queued players, so if you get this error, just drop one player or switch to casual play to fix it. You can also split your group into two duos and queue separately if you still want to play ranked.
If your custom lobby is capped at 10 players instead of 16, that’s usually because you have the official matchmaking mode template selected instead of the custom free play template. Just switch the template in the lobby settings and you’ll unlock the extra slots right away. If you’re playing on console, you might need to download the latest game patch to access 16-player lobbies — older console versions had a lower cap that was fixed in a recent update. I ran into this exact issue when I tried to host a custom lobby on my PS5 last month, and updating the game fixed it in 2 minutes, so don’t skip that step if you’re having trouble.
Another rare issue is when the game won’t let you add more than 8 players to a custom lobby, which usually happens if you have unranked players in your group who haven’t completed the introductory playthrough. Once those players finish their first 3 casual matches, they’ll be able to join custom lobbies of any size.
At the end of the day, how many people can play deadlock depends entirely on what mode you’re playing, from 10 players in official matchmaking up to 16 in custom lobbies. Whether you’re just looking to queue ranked with a couple of friends or host a big game night for your entire gaming group, Deadlock’s flexible player counts make it easy to adjust to whatever your group needs. If you’re new to the game, start with casual 5v5 matchmaking first to get the hang of the mechanics before you dive into custom modes with bigger groups.