Are TF2 servers shutting down? This has been a question on the minds of players who play the game regularly. As evidenced by the fact that Team Fortress 2 has been in the top most played Steam games list for a very long time (with 89,000+ current players at the time of writing this article), it will be extremely surprising and disheartening if TF2 servers are shutting down officially.
But thanks to a tweet that has gone viral on Twitter (X) with 3.6M views, many are worried that Team Fortress 2 servers are closing down – forever. The Steam community also frequently gets new posts by players panicking about their favorite game shutting down. While many rumors are swirling around about this, here’s the truth.
Are TF2 Servers Shutting Down?
No, TF2 or Team Fortress 2 servers are not going to be shut down for players in 2024 or 2025 for that matter.
The reason why these rumors began was a tweet by @EverythingOOC and the share by @operagxofficial which showed an image with the following text – “Thank you for playing! After 16 years of fun, Team Fortress 2 servers will be shutting down on October 10, 2023.”
Plus, there was a screenshot that showed a tweet by @valvesoftware that said the same, posted on July 4, 2023.
Check it out here:
In case the tweet doesn’t load, here’s what it looked like:
But, upon checking the official account of Valve, it was found that there was no such tweet in existence.
There’s a tweet reposted on Jun 15th by Valve and another one directly on August 8th. There’s nothing on July 4th.
Readers added further context to the tweet that said:
“At the moment, there is no official announcement from Valve that it will be shutting down the TF2 servers. Valve has recently shut down the Playstation 3 servers.” and “There is no post on the Valve account saying that the TF2 servers are shutting down.”
At the time of writing this article, the tweets with misinformation were not taken down by the owners.
TF2 Servers Shutdown for PS3
Valve did shut down TF2 servers for PS3 after keeping them up and running for 15 years. On March 28, 2023, Team Fortress 2 servers went offline on PS3, permanently. This, too, was the reason why misinformation spread like wildfire and many players felt that the game was getting shut down on all platforms. Thankfully, that is not the case.
You can head over to EA’s page which shows all servers that are now offline. Scroll to the letter H and you will see Half-Life 2 for PlayStation 3. It says so, because TF2 was part of The Orange Box for PS3 which included 5 games – Half-Life 2 Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, and Portal in addition to full versions of the award-winning Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One.
And that’s the truth behind the rumors of TF2 servers shutting down in 2023, 2024 or beyond. Valve will not abruptly shut down a game this popular, iconic, and positively rated – at least not anytime soon.
