On September 28, 2023, Valve announced Counter-Strike 2 on Steam with redesigned maps, improved graphics, more realistic smoke grenades, and faster game servers. But what happened next with the number of players playing the game?
The Blix.gg team did some research on the topic of online in CS2. We will trace how the numbers have changed and tell you what is happening in the game now!
Highlights
- CS2 online statistics from launch to present
- Data on the lowest and highest average online player counts in CS2
Counter-Strike 2 Release Moment
Counter-Strike 2
On the release day, the game received over 6,000 negative reviews on Steam. Many were from players complaining about slowdowns or frame rate drops even though their computers met the system requirements.
It was discovered that the project contained several contentious elements, so the original version of CS:GO was removed from the store. This decision was criticised by Valve’s digital store users, who began commenting on the CS2 page on Steam. They argued that removing CS:GO while Counter-Strike 2 was in such a poor state was a mistake.
Since the launch of CS2, the game has started to lose players rapidly.
CS2 online statistics from April 2023 to April 2024
Statistics at the time of game release
The graph shows a clear sag in the players’ online starting September 2023. Various annoying bugs and other technical issues have caused significant changes, dropping more than 180,000 players during October and November.
While CS:GO was still available in September, the average number of players per day was 976 thousand. In November, this figure dropped to 714 thousand.
This drop is the most significant in the last 11 years. The game also received poor user reviews upon release.
At the very least, this drop in player numbers was caused by Valve suddenly dropping Mac support, leaving some players unable to play. In addition, older computers are unable to run the game.
Several other issues have made the situation worse. Achievements were removed entirely, and new bugs were annoying players.
Nevertheless, despite this significant drop, Counter-Strike 2 is still hugely popular, and the peak number of players exceeded one million even at the worst moments.
Interim Summary
Notably, interest in the game declined similarly after CS:GO’s release. In October 2012, the average online user dropped by 32.8%.
Interim Statistic
At the end of December 2023, it grew 7.78% from the previous month to 770,000 concurrent players.
The worst time Valve faced in CS2 was in January 2024. On the 23rd, the lowest Peak Players were recordedâ868,187.
However, immediately after this event, the CS2 online grew gradually.
January and December statistics
Simultaneous player online graph for six months
In February, the average number of players increased to 786 thousand; in March, it caught up with the mark of 885 thousand. There was a significant improvement in the average online performance. The increase amounted to almost 13% in March compared to the previous month.
Latest Statistics
Online statistics returned to their previous positions, and in April, CS2 set a record for players since June 2023. On April 7, Valve’s shooter had 1,618,685 players on its servers simultaneously.
Statistics for the last period
The improvement can also be attributed to the game’s updates during this period. You can read about the significant February update here.
Summary
We recommend that you set the best settings to play the game comfortably. You can learn about them in our article.
