Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has managed to break its peak average player record. As one of the most popular games in the industry right now, it isn’t surprising to see CS:GO with a high populace of players, but seeing it break its already-impressive record is something worth noting.
At the moment, CS:GO is the single most actively played game on Steam, beating out the other top-5 games – Dota 2, PUBG, Grand Theft Auto V, and Rainbow Six: Siege – by a considerable margin. Just today, the peak active players were at 779,054, with the current players being a bit less than half that peak number, according to steamdb. These match up with the newly-set average of just below half a million players, with the record now set to be around 464,000.
There are a handful of reasons as to why the player base has been increasing. The most obvious is that many schools and workplaces are enjoying time off for the New Year at the moment, meaning more people are available to play. Past that, CS:GO also just recently released their newest update, Shattered Web, which is bringing plenty more players back into the fray. The last year was already seeing some growth now that CS:GO has transferred to a more free-to-play model.
This week’s Shattered Web Mission Card has unlocked. Start playing “Hot Shot” now: https://t.co/zWc8iZbW3T
— CS2 (@CounterStrike) December 24, 2019
CS:GO remains one of the most popular games in a variety of ways, not just in player base but in viewership. As of writing this, it’s the seventh most-viewed streaming category on Twitch, being beaten by titanic games like League of Legends, Fortnite, and Hearthstone. Ironically, despite having more players on Steam than GTA V and Rainbow Six: Siege, both games beat out CS:GO for viewership on the streaming site.
In terms of esports, CS:GO’s influence can’t be ignored. Esports Earnings lists it as having given out the second-highest amount of prize money, ironically only beaten by Dota 2, both of which are published by Valve. The margin is massive there, though, with Dota 2’s $219,807,087 sitting at more than twice CS:GO’s $90,273,647.
Part of this is due to the crowdsourced nature of Dota and the countless fan tournaments held by the game’s fandom, but it can also be attributed to Dota being on the market a bit longer. Despite this, however, the same source has CS:GO’s tournaments and players both counted at nearly three times that of Dota 2’s tournament/player count.
As the year goes on, it isn’t hard to believe that CS:GO may be breaking their own record again in due time.
