Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) has smashed its all-time concurrent PC user peak. Yes, again.
Clocking up a record 1.5 million concurrent players earlier today (thanks, SteamDB), that means CS:GO now sports Steam’s second-biggest concurrent players record ever.
Whilst it still has some ways to go to take the top spot – pole position holder PUBG Battlegrounds’ concurrent record is twice as high at CS:GO’s at 3.2 million – it’s an incredible feat for a decade-old shooter.
The seminal shooter – which has been around in one form or another for over 20 years at this point – only recently surpassed its own concurrent record, hitting an all-time peak of 1.32 million players last month, and then breaching 1.4m just a couple of weeks ago.
Prior to February’s new record, CS:GO’s concurrent user record reportedly stood at 1,308,963 players. But that record was set three years ago, and as you may remember, there was something happening at that time that unexpectedly kept us all indoors. That makes these record-breaking user numbers particularly impressive.
Rumours of Counter-Strike 2 had been circulating for a while, including a leak earlier this month and a trademark filing, but Counter-Strike 2 has finally been officially announced and will launch in summer 2023.
A free upgrade to CS:GO, it will start a new era of the game on Valve’s Source 2 engine, which the company promises will mark the “largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike’s history”.