CS:GO break its own all-time peak player record

Popular first-person shooter game CS:GO continues to soar to new heights and break its own all-time record of peak player counts with 1,320,219 concurrent users.

According to Steam Charts, CS:GO broke its previous record of the highest number of concurrent players after recording 1,320,219 concurrent players on February 11th. CS:GO reached its previous peak of 1,305,714 concurrent players in April 2020, when the entire world was dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Since then, the game’s average player count has fluctuated below one million for much of 2021 until ultimately rising in 2022, when CSGO hit 1 million concurrent players and peaked at 1,013,237 according to Steam Charts. The fluctuation in player numbers, however, in no way indicates that CS:GO was having trouble.

While many popular titles seemed to be losing players, CS:GO managed to reach a million concurrent players alongside three other titles including Dota 2, PUBG, and Lost Ark. The new milestone clearly demonstrates that CS:GO is still as popular as it has ever been, despite being the oldest FPS game and facing fierce rivalry from direct competitor Valorant. It will be intriguing to see how much more CS:GO can accomplish this year, especially with a strong start to the year.

What are the reasons behind the sudden rise? 

Like every other game, CS:GO has seen a quick increase in users at the start of the new year, with a massive uptick of over 96,000 new players in January 2023. Many people think that the new Revolution case, which became available following the update on February 9, was the primary cause of the players’ boast.

The Revolution Case has the distinction of being the first Case since the Operation Bravo Case back in 2013 to have the whole set of skins. There are 17 new skins included in the Case, covering practically all of the game’s frequently used firearms including M4A4, M4A1, AK-47, and AWP. Songs from Denzel Curry’s album “Melt My Eyez See Your Future” and the brand-new “Espionage Sticker Capsule,” which includes 21 stickers from the Steam Workshop, were also added to the game in addition to the new case. 

IEM Katowice 2023, a recent CS:GO competition that saw G2 Esports win the trophy after defeating Heroic in the championship match, could have been another important factor that helped the title to reach this record-breaking high player count. The peak player count was achieved just over an hour before the semifinal match between the Danish team Heroic and the fearsome Natus Vincere from Ukraine. 

Header: Valve