Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was the game that kick-started a thriving esports ecosystem, a bustling ‘skins market’, and an ecosystem that would come to dominate PC gaming for years to come. However, once Counter-Strike 2 emerged, folks had little reason to really play CSGO.
That has changed in recent months. In March, CSGO returned to Steam as a standalone game, pulled clean away from Counter-Strike 2 and made fully and easily accessible once again. Recently, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive reached a new peak player count, months after breaking away from CS2.
CSGO is the Gift That Gives Forever
Both Counter-Strike 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive are standing firm in Steam’s most-played game charts, which is a testament to Valve’s ongoing support of the legendary first-person shooter series.
On July 1st, CSGO managed to hit a new peak player count on Steam, reaching 68,231 concurrent players and maintaining those numbers in the days that followed. It’s not entirely clear what caused the sudden uptick, but a week before the spike, only 18,000 people were playing the iconic esports title.
Since emerging as a standalone title on Steam, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has remained a staple once again. It has racked up fantastic reviews, sitting at 96% positivity from 60,000+ reviews at the time of writing.
By contrast, Counter-Strike 2 has a rating of 85% positivity from a whopping 9.7 million reviews. As one of the most-played games of all time, CS2’s peak player count on Steam is a lofty 1.86 million.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is obviously trailing CS2 by a fair margin. The player count at the time of writing was a hefty 90%+ lower, but that’s still good going for a 14-year-old FPS that has been taken over by a much newer game.
Are you still playing CSGO? Let us know your thoughts about the aging shooter on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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