How will Dota 2 celebrate its 10th anniversary?

Dota 2 is coming up on a decade of being officially released, and Valve has confirmed a plan to celebrate the anniversary.

Dota 2’s exact age is difficult to quantify. The game technically became playable to the general public in 2010, but developer Valve considers 2013 to be its official year of release. By that definition, the MOBA is quickly approaching its 10th anniversary, and Valve has already acknowledged the milestone in a bittersweet way. However, its plans to celebrate are still under wraps. What should fans expect?

Valve first mentioned the important milestone in the same official blog post that announced the lack of a battle pass for The International 2023. It wasn’t the main topic of discussion, but it confirmed that there would be some sort of event to mark ten years of Dota 2. 

“The ten year anniversary of Dota’s public release is coming up (yes, we’re working on some fun stuff for it; no, we’re definitely not going to hit the July 9th date listed on Steam). As anniversaries go ten years is a big one,” said the post.

This small blurb doesn’t give any hints as to what the celebration will be, but based on previous Dota 2 milestones and Valve’s other announcement, it’s easy to imagine what the company is cooking up.

Dota 2 10th anniversary update will likely bring a battle pass

The 10th anniversary of Dota 2 will most likely include a battle pass filled with all the cosmetics Valve would have saved for The International.

The biggest piece of evidence for this theory is the lack of a TI battle pass this year. Valve claimed that it spent some of the manpower used to create the battle pass on the New Frontiers update, but all hands have likely been on deck since its release for the 10th anniversary of Dota 2. It’s also been quite a while Dota 2 fans got an in-game reward track, with the pass for The International 2022 ending in January of this year.

One detail Valve has already confirmed is that the update will be late. The official Steam page for Dota 2 lists July 9, 2013 as its release date, but Valve says that it will not hit that date for the celebration. Valve Time is in full effect, so it’s likely that the update will come in either late July or sometime in August.

Either way, expect cosmetics like hero skins, map packs, music kits, and plenty of opportunities to spend money.