The prospect of Counter-Strike 2 (opens in new tab) has lots of people enjoying CS:GO (opens in new tab), with a brand new all-time peak participant document of 1,519,457 being set in the present day. That is a quantity reported by each SteamDB (opens in new tab) and Steamcharts (opens in new tab), and it is wildly larger than CS:GO’s prior excessive water marks. CS:GO’s earlier excessive level was in April 2020, when pandemic lockdowns internationally noticed many video games—and Steam itself—report document participant numbers.
That is as a result of Counter-Strike 2 was introduced this week. It is an actual recreation, it is free, and all the things in it carries over (opens in new tab) from Counter-Strike: International Offensive. Everybody’s fancy skins are going to Supply Engine 2 land. Sure, even that one particular person’s $150,000 gun pores and skin (opens in new tab). It has despatched the CS pores and skin market straight to crazytown (opens in new tab).
At present’s document beats the prior depend by over 200,000 gamers. The rationale? Properly, fashionable idea says that it is as a result of Counter-Strike 2 beta entry is simply going to individuals who play plenty of Counter-Strike. (And no cheaters or jerks are getting in (opens in new tab), which is hysterical.) That, or it is simply plenty of former or lapsed gamers getting nostalgic about Counter-Strike and eager to expertise it at its peak earlier than CS2 hits and steals away the participant depend.
Counter-Strike: International Offensive has been on the rise since launch, hardly ever falling over the course of a single 12 months outdoors of an prolonged nadir in 2018. Even that low level, nonetheless, was nonetheless netting over 400,000 day by day gamers. Late 2018 noticed the discharge of the free model of CS:GO, and the typical year-over-year has stabilized at one thing like 1,000,000 gamers since.
The response to Counter-Strike 2 has been just about what you’d anticipate from a powerful, interesting-looking replace to a staple shooter for each informal and esports gamers: Virtually universally optimistic (opens in new tab). Resident Counter-Strike head Wealthy Stanton mentioned that Valve could properly have created his dream recreation, dumping a laundry checklist of enhancements (opens in new tab) he’d seen onto the positioning.
Oh, and for these of you fearful that CS2 will steal all of the CS:GO gamers away? In all probability not. Folks nonetheless play CS 1.6, in any case.
