Which Dota 2 custom game had over seven million in-game subscribers by April 2019?

Which Dota 2 custom game had over seven million in-game subscribers by April 2019? The answer is Dota Auto Chess. The custom game, released in January 2019, rapidly became one of Dota 2’s biggest community-created phenomena.

Dota Auto Chess placed players in an automated strategy contest on a chess-like board. Participants assembled teams from Dota heroes, positioned them during preparation phases, and watched the units fight automatically. Strategic choices included team composition, upgrades, economy, positioning, and synergies.

Its rapid growth is sometimes described using different measurements, including subscribers, players, or accounts, and later reports cited more than eight million players by May 2019. Despite those wording differences, Dota Auto Chess is the custom game identified with the seven-million milestone.

Its success helped popularize the auto battler genre. It also led to separate games: Drodo Studio developed Auto Chess, while Valve created Dota Underlords after the companies decided not to make one joint standalone title.