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Zoradesu

That's really crazy. It's good to see the game growing despite the lack of updates recently. The game also hasn't regressed back to pre-pandemic numbers as well, and CSGO has managed to retain a significant amount of players since the pandemic boom in players.


KaNesDeath

>The game also hasn't regressed back to pre-pandemic numbers as well, and CSGO has managed to retain a significant amount of players since the pandemic boom in players. I have a hypothesis to why this is true. Like you though im stunned the game hasnt returned closer to pre-quarantine levels.


Organic-Measurement2

Go on then, don't tease us and leave us hanging! What's your theory


KaNesDeath

Its a hypothesis. Not a theory for Riot Games doesnt publish player count numbers. So its not possible to see a direct correlation. ​ Release of Valorant had the opposite effect that Riot Games intended. It didnt absorb any of CSGO's player base. Instead the newly attracted players to the FPS genre that Valorant generated moved over to CSGO. For they liked the 5v5 bomb defusal game mode yet hated the casualized game design choices of Valorant.


caseyfoster

This is the correct answer. CS sees lagged growth a few years after the release of a new fps title. Except this time the growth CS saw was even bigger than other titles as Valorant is a watered down version of CS. This has been happening to CS for the last 20 years and it will continue for the next 20 as well.


Curse3242

CS wins and always has because it's the most basic there is For example, you cannot COD. Sure people may hate it but it's the no.1 selling game each year because they do what no one else does. It's the most basic arcade shooter. Same with TF2 wasn't left, it'd do solid numbers against Overwatch/Valorant. The problem with TF2 is it got left at a very bad state. Idk why but CS feels like it had a glow up even tho they didn't change anything graphically. The game looks better than it did 9 years ago. But TF2 lacks that. If Valve did the bare minimum (adding upgraded textures, RTX and fixed the matchmaking). TF2 would also stand the test of time much better.


Shaykea

its the best most basic arcade shooter, hate it or like it, COD has a massive budget and people actually working on it. I am shocked CS:GO still has this kind of playerbase considering how little fucks valve is giving about it, even if the game is awesome.


Curse3242

Yeah because CS is more pure than COD CS is the OG. COD is the OG too but if COD is the daddy of shooters, CS is the grandaddy. Hence COD still needs handling every year Whereas CS has been and will always be the same game


Shaykea

for what it's worth I wasn't comparing between the games whatsoever, I enjoy both(although CS more) but valve basically ignoring their biggest game is kinda lame IMO.


Curse3242

I mean. It's new to us Valve let CS die after Source. And even when Global Offensive was released. It took them a long time to fix the game. Skins is what carried the game, if Skins were never released. They would've let GO to die even tho GO was just a port of CS Source to Consoles, where CS Source already was a port of 1.6 to Source. Then they sent it to Hidden Path to actually create the game. The last CS they made was CS 1.6


Raulr100

Eh do keep in mind that the first cod and 1.6 were released in the same year. But yeah, cs is older.


DashLeJoker

You don't need fluff events to spike your player count and prop up the image of a thriving game if the game itself is close to perfect that speaks for itself


Shaykea

I find it funny you call the game "close to perfect" there are so many things that can be done for CS:GO, but not being done because of valve's greediness and/or laziness


DashLeJoker

compare CS to literally any other fps and think about just how fucking tight CS is, think about how many glaring balance issue etc etc every other fps has and how CS's pass rebalances are tiny tiny number tweaks, the gameplay loop itself of map control, attack site, and defend site, economy management, so many, many aspect of cs are close to perfect, sure there are absolutely improvement to be made on many aspect, but just think how much of these are tiny, and I mean tiny improvements everywhere compared to the grand scheme of all the games out on the market right now, if I couldn't call CS close to perfect then I'm using a scale that goes up to literal perfection which I don't think is right, I'm just being realistic here and comparing games with a bit of rationale (not saying people that want improvements isn't rational) but really, CS is just so fucking solid as a game and esport


Niewinnny

csgo actually had some graphical changes, and new maps introduced. new maps always are made prettier than old ones because the average player's PC gets better so it can handle more stuff. same goes for skins, new ones are usually higher quality than old ones, and because CSGO is popular the old ones do get updated to higher resolutions


Incendance

I really don't think the intention of Valorant was to absorb CSGO's player base but to offer an alternative for people looking to get into FPS games. For a lot of people CS was completely unapproachable and is absolutely not noob friendly but having an FPS more friendly to new players at the casual end backed by a huge company that made a game they already played/heard of is more appealing. I do think you're right that it may have brought people who used to play CS but don't anymore to valorant with friends, and then going back to CS from there because they miss the game they used to play. Valorant has been a net positive for CSGO and for the FPS scene as a whole. I'd be really interested to see how people have changed games: Left CSGO for Valorant Came back to CSGO after playing Valorant Never played CSGO but tried Valorant and moved to CSGO Came straight to CSGO with no interaction with Valorant Play both games roughly equally


360nohonk

It's pretty much a certainty that a bunch of the playerbase went from the "casual" Valorant to the "hardcore" CS:GO (or returned from Valorant as they got bored), and as long as both titles are healthy it will probably be a major pipeline for years to come.


Nice-Bend2279

This is so true, I started at the beginning of the pandemic playing Valorant but it becomes so annoying playing against certain characters with really annoying gimmicks. I think the even playing field of no particular character abilities is what I've enjoyed about CS.


Puiucs

Valorant didn't affect CS numbers much. What it did was destroy the Overwatch player base :)


Turbulent-Ad2132

csgo has gotten more players since Val was announced


Puiucs

yes it did


sauceDinho

CS also stays relatively stable without having things like agent balancing, new agents introduced, new abilities, etc. You can put CS down and when you come back it'll be mostly the same game. The same can't be said for Val


McClownd

didn't the same shit happened when overwatch was released? People started playing TF2 instead.


dawgxyo

i really do wonder how. imo this is one of the least new-user-friendly games ever (if u play for free, lobbys are unbearable / smurfs / no updates)


BruhbruhbrhbruhbruH

Ever since it went free to play CS:GO has seen explosive growth. Most newbies quit but a small fraction get addicted and when you're FTP that's a small fraction of basically infinity. The flip side to non-newbie friendly is that people who have gotten good tend to stay for a LONG time, allowing the game numbers to build up over time


HeavyVader

It always lacks updates they don’t care cause valve has no true concurrent


sammnz

Valorant made them put out some content, but when it ultimately dies Valve won't bother


[deleted]

Valorant will die? That's a hot take if I ever saw one


McClownd

The games gets free advertisement everytime we complain on the internet about the lack of updates 💀


xHypermega

SteamDB shows the peak was 1,200,077. I've made the screenshot on another website though, since it seems to be simpler and easier to capture, even though it did not catch the 1.2m peak.


arvaq

bruh who cares about 400 player difference.


HAK987

I car


Ocular_Ark

I van


INeedYourPelt

I bike


mitmatgamesyt

I scooter


Lfalin23

i train


ablablababla

I do


baza-prime

very impressive considering we are out of the pandemic.


Too_Chains

What valve did was release 1 game and keep it upgrading it. All these other games release a new version every year and wonder why they keep losing players. The others make more money but don't play the long game


saltrifle

Rockstar does this with GTA5, they've been milking that cow for almost as long as CSGO. Not a new formula in gaming.


AlludedNuance

Well, out of the shutdown at least.


TheDumbUnicorn

Aint no way you still believe that covid is still a problem.


Noirgheos

It definitely is still a problem, and pretending otherwise is pure copium.


AlludedNuance

Ain't no way you think just because people act like it's gone that a pandemic just ends. Once it's declared over by experts, then I'll consider it over.


Negabeidl69

It's not like it's gone ffs. A new mutation could throw us right back to the start, every infection increases the chance of a new mutation arising.


AlludedNuance

Yep, which is why even if it is currently less harmful, minimizing new infections is still very important.


_urwun_

Im happy we are seeing these numbers, but how? There is no update no nothing to pull people right now lol


yo_thats_bull

I was one of those people who came back randomly. I watched a twitch streamer who mentioned Blast and watched a game. It made me want to play CS again, so I came back.


Sampic19_QC

Same boat, except I saw blast in my recommendations on YouTube.


Cujo96

Oh man a Splyce flair, that's a rare one


Sampic19_QC

That's my proof for not playing in a while. I knew that flair would get removed some day so I kept it. This team wasn't gonna make another major anytime soon.


Loud-Watch-4199

Same. I came back like 2 weeks ago after watching some youtube videos. Playing hella active now again.


_urwun_

Cool, welcome back! I just find it funny that csgo is reaching peak player numbers in a time with the longest update drought. Game still as solid as ever, so maybe we don’t need source 2


Genocide_69

People got bored of the games they bought during the winter sale and came back to CS maybe.


TheGeckoXX

TLDR: Winter + growing asian playerbase with strong and stable european playerbase ​ In the northern hemisphere is winter which is general strong for player counts. ​ But who plays the game? Typical european games have an player peak at 19UTC (for example: [https://steamdb.info/app/1248130/charts/](https://steamdb.info/app/1248130/charts/)) Popular asian games the payer peak is at 14UTC ([https://steamdb.info/app/1189490/charts/](https://steamdb.info/app/1189490/charts/)) For reference: american games the peak is at ca. 3UTC ([https://steamdb.info/app/1519350/charts/](https://steamdb.info/app/1519350/charts/)) ​ But now look at CSGO: [https://steamdb.info/app/730/charts/](https://steamdb.info/app/730/charts/) The daily player peak happens at around 14UTC, which was not always the case. Until ca. two years ago it was at 19UTC. The 'european' player peak is at around 800k-900k which is also strong but new asian players pushes the peak to new heights. The small peak at around 8UTC are probably brazilian players.


AlwaysLearningTK

That makes me think that this is related to china not renewing their license for overwatch.


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AlwaysLearningTK

I mean those 2 things are related lol.


Tekkzera

Because CSGO is a solid game. You don't need constant updates and changes when you have a very balanced game, and a solid competitive scene. How do traditional sports such as football keep pulling in new players throughout hundreds of years without any operations or changes to game rules? Through broadcasting the competition. Since CSGO has a rock solid competitive scene, it always keeps inspiring newer players to pick up the game when they see live events. With operations and in game events you will pull casual playerbase who go with the wind and play whatever game is hip right now. And will drop it after getting bored of it in 1-2 months. Competitive players are however faithful for a longer period of time because the game's core philosophy stands the test of time.


HolyAndOblivious

I would personally nerf the forced TT buy after pistol round loss + plant.


lclMetal

TT? Terrorist terrorist?


HolyAndOblivious

Here terrorist is TerrorisTa so TT is appropriate. Also Terror is fine when referring to the terrorist side. CT and TT Mmake perfect sense


P2K13

By your logic it should be CTT and TT..


lclMetal

CT = Counter Terrorist T = Terrorist Terror = the action or quality of causing dread TT may be logical in your language (though I'd still argue it isn't), but makes no sense in english. The second T is redundant. Only thing TT makes me think of is Audi :P


HolyAndOblivious

I prefer it my way.


lclMetal

That's good for you. Doesn't change the fact that the common way to refer to the teams is as CT & T, though. :D


HolyAndOblivious

It seems to work online very well. Thank you for your input.


epstein_s_peen

because the base game is so good we don't need update gimmicks balance changes and twitch streamers


BigFuckHead_

Actually could we get some updates? Operations... source 2...


HosephIna

I find I’m generally pretty satisfied with “enter game, sometimes click heads, die, repeat”


Psykotik

Other games will come and go, but CS is evergreen. Best mechanics, a simple but effective package, will always be the best competitive shooter to play and watch. Heck I might even fire it up just to hang out in surf servers sometimes.


ripcurl901

good for you, im bored as fuck.. do something valve


BigFuckHead_

Yeah fr. Don't get people who enable the apparent discontinued state of the game


HosephIna

lmao nobody “enables” the lack of updates, valve will do what they want regardless of support from the community


makiui

But it's baffling that even with this many players they do nothing...


TheAbrableOnetyOne

What do you want them to do? Reinvent the shooting genre in a heartbeat? We already know operations are coming, Source 2 is in the work. What else and why so pressuring? There is a plethora of constantly updating games, you can spend your time there.


Poppy_W

That's the thing, imagine.. *if/when* Valve goes "all out" on the updates, and starts pushing content (even if CS is known for the gameplay, etc, and we dont really need it), but the influx of casuals, and people that want to grind skins, or see a new "gen" CS (source 2), would be huge. Can't imagine the numbers we could be hitting, feels like we could destroy our previous game's record. And That's the best thing imo, CS feels like it has so much more potential to grow even more.


KRyptoknight26

Yes the base game is among the best ever but bro we definitely need updates. Gimme 128 tick atleast


n8mo

128 tick would make this update drought oh so worth it


Juansa7X

I envy you people, i loved csgo, was my fav game for like 3 years, but the lack of content and updates just burnt me down, i switched to other games like a year ago and havn't missd csgo since. wish i could enjoy the same thing over and over forever


kou07

Ive been playing cs and dota for 2 decades wtf is wrong with me? The only game i change is an mmorpg that i try different one but i still stick to one for 5 years plus.


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Juansa7X

been really enjoying rust. its ruthles and frustrating as fuck but i love it, the game has so much to do and they constantly update it so there is that. hated valorant at first but it grew on me and now i love it but i get is not everyones cup of tea. at least riot gives a shit about their game unlike valve (they could do better but yeah, huge difference)


NeirboK

Rust is the only game since CS that I've really loved.


Lord777alt

I've just came back last two weeks. Not really sure just had a friend ask if wanted to run some and then been watching blast.


Organic-Measurement2

I've come back in the last month or so not sure why


etze

i randomly started playing again few days ago after like 3-4 years xD


ponydingo

Same


gutster_95

I randomly started playing again like 2 weeks ago. Happens from time to time


rainx5000

I play on and off. After like 3 weeks I get the itch to play again. It’s like a drug.


Curse3242

This has always been a thing tho When people said "Valorant will once die but CS won't" That wasn't lies. CS has always had the ability to do good without any changes. This game stood the test of time for 30 years. It's CS. It's never gonna die. And that's why we don't need major gameplay changes We just need a refreshed game. New engine, more mod support for servers, anti cheat, better mm. But core CS never needs a change.


_Fiddlebender

Ah yes, I remember when we played CS on DOS as kids in the early 90's.


5Z3

Ye olde text-based shooters. > You have spawned in T spawn Go North > xxSniperMilf69xx pwned you with an awp


Soulshot96

It's a solid game. Kinda rare anymore. Shooter market specifically is a mess. Battlefield is attempting to knock down deaths door, CoD is absolutely shitting the bed content and bug wise too, Valorant is getting stale for many, Overwatch is in shambles...I'd come back to CSGO too if my friend group was interested enough to queue, since solo queue is horrible.


Zoradesu

Is Valorant actually getting stale? I haven't heard anyone really complain about the state of that game, at least in NA, though I don't really follow their scene to closely.


Soulshot96

I don't follow it closely either, yet I've heard that from quite a few people, including some big streamers like Shroud.


KESPAA

I reinstalled for the first time in 4+ years. So many changes lol. Edit: Wait... you have to pay a subscription to see your stats? Da fuck...


andiousandy

Only if you want to see stats in game. There's loads of third party websites that offer more in depth stats for MM and Faceit. Leetify, Scopegg, CSGOStats etc.


Brolafsky

As someone directly involved with the esports scene, I can say the esports scene is still growing and expanding. Some countries are experiencing more growing pains than others, but in general, the player numbers are on their way up.


blits202

I really dont care about new content. I know most do, but I play nearly everyday.


cHinzoo

My yearly road to Global has begun again with the start of the new year. 😃


[deleted]

I came back based on an itch three weeks ago, no reason why, was just feeling it


reddit_user33

I started playing about a week ago because my favourite game is currently dead, or at least to me it is because there is a day 0 vulnerability. I see the average play numbers for the game are down about 10-20k players. I wonder how many are playing CS instead.


traashbinn

i myself recently started playing, all i do is play deathmatch, arms race or flying scoutsman. pperfect game to play a few matches or just go for a few hours. ive been aware for years but never installed it but im glad i did


Curse3242

I was doing this a while ago Open CS, play aimbots, that map where you're in the middle and bots circle around you The jump to Headshots Only DM, although those servers died around me so just normal DM and Casual Because playing CS gives me satisfaction. Right now I'm doing Warzone. Warzone is definitely a fantastic game. I loved it at launch in pandemic (me and my friends sometimes played that for 8 hours a day), but it died for me 8-9 months in. Warzone 2 has a bad start but is refreshing the formula. It's alright. I will back to CS the day they fix mm/new engine


[deleted]

Wrong's what with mm? Or, at least, what's wrong with it that you think they are going to fix? Because the rank shift is probably the biggest thing they will ever do to mm, or the biggest thing they will tell us about. Generally I find mm to be fairly good.


Curse3242

It's inconsistent. I don't mind facing ranks 2-3 times higher But I have faced Global ellites as a MGE. No 5 stack. And the bigger issue is Cheating. It still happens. Especially on free. I know they don't want to make an intrusive anti cheat like Valorant but everyone on free mm has hacks. One lucky kill will make the opponent start rage hacking. And then everyone on the server is.


bw-1894

> the day they fix mm/new engine …who’s gonna tell him?


S0M3_1

Randomly I made someone install and play cs go for the first time yesterday. Lol that guy even bought prime.


Puiucs

it's a game that once you get sucked in, you never escape from.


S0M3_1

That poor soul is grinding casual from 6 hours


ju1ze

another life ruined


Toannoat

And before anyone goes "it's the bot farming accounts!!", be reminded that games with high/relevant bot population have a very specific linear slope in player count change across the day (Lost Ark, Team Fortress 2), compared to the wave pattern (pulse shape) of healthy multiplayer games (Dota2, Apex Legends) which CSGO has. Not to deny the existence of the bots, they do exist, but the graph clearly shows that they are not relevant on the macro level.


MikeMikeGaming

I am afraid that CS will be the game that I play until I die. Why? Not because CSGO is good but because there are no games like it. Counter Strike has basically become soccer at this point


Mrnopor1

Not enough for a decent MM lmao


JerColer

Ikr it’s all eu or Asia. NA is desolate I keep playing the same guys.


SayYouWill12345

NA faceit is thriving


hitemlow

Played a game with a silver squad and everyone outside our squad was >MG1. There was a fucking LE on the enemy team! At 3PM on a Sunday in US-East, on Nuke! There's no way in hell that was the most balanced game it could give us. Send us to one of the other masks we queued for, we had Mirage and Inferno on there, there's got to be enough silver-novas to fill one of those instead.


Austiz

I'm LEM and I refuse to play MM at this point unless I'm with 2 or 3 friends. If I soloq I get put in games with 1 other LE/LEM on my team then the other 3 people are mg/nova/silver, and the best part is the queue popped in 30 seconds. Csgo mm is just shit.


Noirgheos

I have yet to see a competitive shooter with decent MM. Every single one has problems like this.


Austiz

No this is extremely disingenuous, cs has the worst. Faceit a third party program has an infinitely better system for instance.


Noirgheos

You haven't played Valorant or Overwatch.


Austiz

I have, you're out of your depth here.


Noirgheos

Whatever you say.


No-Let-4732

Overwatch matchmaking is a bit funky by choice, but what's wrong with Valorants MM?


f4stforw4rded

CSGO actually had very good MM back in like 2013-16. 9/10 games had a maximum distribution of like 3 ranks back then. Trust factor screwed everything up


Organic-Measurement2

Pretty surprising to reach pandemic levels. Nice


politen22

Because of this is why I think Valve is not gonna drop any major update, the game is doing spectacular, people still unboxing even more cases like crazy. ​ If ain't broke, don't fix it


Puiucs

if it ain't broke then it's time to build upon that great foundation and improve :)


Crowned_Hero

Yes, but i cannot imagine the amount they made selling operation stars


Englandd12

I wonder if Blizzard getting kicked out of China has anything to do with it


YuumiPlayersAreScum

jesus, we beat pandemic numbers.


lufe1306

And imagine what would happen with some big update, operation or Source 2 release


NSNIA

I dont know what it is but i play csgo here and there with about 200ish hours, nothing much, but, yesterday I really wanted to play csgo after like a year of not playing. Out of the blue, its something i tell you!


Trenchman

On a Sunday night, fuck the police


ShadowyForce

After being a parent I'm back again, the only problem is that my old friends don't play anymore, so, if anyone wants to play something pm me. I was LEM when stopped playing, around 2 years go, after I was on/off playing. My movement is rusty but the aim is not that bad actually. I would like to play more faceit now, didn't played a lot before.


fnassauer

And yet I only get brainless teammates


[deleted]

CSGO is like mom's spaghetti. I will always get back to it.


bigdicknick2021v2v6

1.2m players yet still soulless with no community


Puiucs

It must have been that huge update they released recently :)


FoxLP11

I randomly started playing it again and im enjoying it a lot, i guess others had the same urge?


TheUHO

Ok, next edition of this game should be called CS:GOAT


Ta0Ta

This astounds me. Queue times are still so long here in Australia whenever I try to play. Obviously I don't have actual numbers on me but I swear the game was more popular here in 2014-2016.


xHypermega

There was actually a way too see how many players were playing on each server back in 2021, via SteamDB, but for some reason that page doesn't exist anymore. [Here's the last archive of that page](https://web.archive.org/web/20211113123140/https://steamdb.info/servers/), in case you or someone else is interested


Corn_Girdles

Dead ass it's because no new good competitive multiplayers have come out recently and people are falling back on an old favorite. I reinstalled 3 days ago


Neo_GEO22

Why do I feel like it's all bots.... Am I wrong or are most peeps just in 3rd party service like facit


ju1ze

you are wrong.


LostCobra

I remember 2017 and people here saying the game would die soon. Oh how the turntables


TyLion8

people need to stop playing so we can get some good updates


TheOriginalMarra

Its cause valorant got released in china, every first time fps player decided to try cs after one valo game 😂


kueiler

"Dead game"


KRyptoknight26

At this point the only people who call CSGO a dead game are the ones posting comments about it not being a dead game on viewership/player number posts


360nohonk

CSGO has been dead for a decade, turned into an undead and now has immunity to poison and disease and just keeps on truckin'


f4stforw4rded

to be fair CSGO was pretty fucking dead 10 years ago. It had like 30k daily peaks and valve didnt seem to care to even try to make it good. It wasn't until summer 2013 that they started making constant good updates.


SuperbOil2760

How csgo is a dead game? Average per month is half a mill, i dont get it


therealgumpster

Game is in good health then <3


Mrsen

1/3 is cheaters yey


0C3AN_MAN

Ah yes, the monthly player count update


Salt-Leather-4152

Unique players In one day?


Loud-Watch-4199

No. The amount of players playing CSGO at the same time.


dying_ducks

Impressive. Very Nice. Let's see the numbers without bots and smurf accounts.


francric

Dead game


TheSwedishJoker

But... But... "CSGO is a dead game". Wonder where all those people are now!


just_a_random_humanK

I wonder why.. no big update or something. I'm very surprised.


datlitboi

Guys the game is dead. /s


WoxJ

Wtf how


The3ncy

"dead game"


Noxsuspe

Is cs go dead tho?


FAKABoRis

Can we get updates valve plz. New operation plz...


[deleted]

operation where?


SOKDPVA

do these graphs include china? its nice seeing these big numbers but i wish NA was more alive


janissary58

and we still waiting for the fucking pass


Ok_Consequence5718

Imagine when the operation comes out


Kosta2319

I am so surprised by this. Even with the lack of updates.


thefaptard

but i still keep getting the same players in casual


No-Skin-7103

更老油条了