NS shared insights on when Valve might shut down Dota 2 servers

Yaroslav "NS" Kuznetsov, streamer and former esports player, believes that the MOBA genre will lose its popularity entirely within the next 10 years, which could lead Valve to shut down the Dota 2 servers.

He shared this during a Twitch stream.

"I agree that the MOBA genre is strange. I think it will die soon. Soon, in the perspective of 10 years. It will still exist, people will play Dota even 50 years from now. Even if Valve shuts down the servers, people will set up underground ones. Just like how some people still play the first Dota, they'll play the second one too. But the mass appeal of this genre will end. It’s simply doomed to die. I realized this not too long ago"

According to him, it's unlikely that the genre can be saved, but Dota 2 will continue to live on even after the official servers are shut down. NS mentioned that when the official servers go offline, people will start creating private ones where they can keep playing. However, he also noted that the current situation in Dota 2 is not very favorable due to the lack of new, younger players.

"The lifespan is limited due to the nature of the genre. You need to constantly add something, otherwise, people get bored. On the one hand, it's cool that new things are added, but on the other hand, it slowly drives away people who don't like sudden changes. There are quite a few of them. Moreover, Dota is a game that old-timers play. Many have been playing it since the first part. They are quite old, and they find it a bit tedious to keep up with thousands of changes. And not many young players are coming in"

Previously, NS talked about a unique feature of The International 2024, something unprecedented in the history of Dota 2.