2023 TF2 / Source Engine Asset Leak

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Part of a series on Team Fortress 2. [View Related Entries]

Overview

2023 TF2 / Source Engine Asset Leak refers to a massive 61-gigabyte leak of the asset repository for the 2007 video game Team Fortress 2, as well as several other Source Engine games by Valve that included unused maps, models, taunts and other cut content. The leak became a major topic of discussion within the Team Fortress 2 community in January 2023, as users shared their findings online on Twitter, Discord and other social media.

Background

About half an hour after midnight on January 12th, 2023, Twitter user @TF2CutContent received and tweeted out information about a possible upcoming major leak^[7]. 4 hours later, a 61GB asset repository for Team Fortress 2, as well as Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, was leaked online through Discord, and was initially tweeted out by TF2CutContent^[8], with the link to the repository spread on Discord, Twitter, and image boards. That day, TF2CutContent started digging through the leak and tweeting out finds, continuing to do so for two days straight, with no sleep. YouTuber Richter Overtime later reported on the leak on Twitter,^[1] with his tweet gaining over 4,600 retweets and 25,100 likes in one day (shown below) due to his existing following. TF2CutContent's coverage also gained him two and a half thousand followers in the span of two days.

Later that day, RichterOvertime uploaded a video showcasing some findings of the leak which received over 300,000 views on YouTube^[2] in one day (shown below).

The leak, which is a developer repo available to those who develop games using Valve's Source engine, contains unused maps, models, animations and other cut and behind-the-scenes content for Team Fortress 2 and other games.

Online Reactions

Starting on January 12th, the leak became a viral time topic of discussion within the Team Fortress 2 and Valve community online as users shared their discoveries and posted memes about the leak. For example, on January 12th, 2023, Twitter^[3] account @heavyfortres posted a meme about the leak that gained over 730 retweets and 8,200 likes in one day (shown below).

On January 12th, Twitter^[4] user @UEAKCrash made a Twitter thread showcasing scrapped Team Fortress 2 maps, with the first tweet gaining over 610 retweets and 4,700 likes in one day (shown below).

The leak also drew significant attention from gaming websites and was covered by Rock Paper Shotgun,^[5] The Gamer^[6] and other websites.