Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is soaring high, retaining 1M+ players for a year for the first time in a decade.
CS2 could be released any day now, and while a large chunk has already upgraded to the Source 2 variant, CSGO is hitting new heights. For the first time since its release, CSGO has sustained 1 million players throughout the year.
In August 2022, right after its 10th anniversary, CSGO regained the 1 million benchmark. However, no one was surprised since this wasn’t the first time the game attracted the interest of a million players.
After a few months, the player count would often decline, and everyone had expected the same back in 2022. Shattering all expectations, CSGO still sits at 1.5 million peak players 12 months later.
CSGO hits a new milestone ahead of CS2 release
In August, CSGO had 1,556,326 active players, according to
SteamCharts.
While CSGO did hit 1 million on its own, the continued appeal can be attributed to CS2 hype. Instead of dropping keys or setting up a registration process, Valve distributed the beta access vaguely, allowing those who played MM into the exclusive circle. Those who preferred FACEIT and other platforms were left out. This criterion encouraged players to return to CSGO MM to make the cut.
In a recent blog post, Valve made it even more clear that only ranked players are eligible for CS2. The latest wave has lax eligibility criteria, so you should have access as long as you have an active rank and prime status. In the past few days, more players have logged back into Steam to activate their decayed rank.
This is part of the reason more players are returning to CSGO so they can quickly transition their builds to CS2. In any case, this is a massive milestone for Valve’s labor of love before it goes away forever.
Fariha Bhatti
About Fariha Bhatti
Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.
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