CS2 breaks all-time player record post-Major

Following the conclusion of the Perfect World Shanghai Major on December 15th, Counter-Strike 2 broke another record for its all-time player count, seeing 1,740,261 players being recorded around 09:00AM. The 1.7m number is the latest record broken by Counter-Strike 2 as it has continued to regain ground lost in the transition from CS:GO, with the game on average seeing 880,000 players playing at any given time in the past 30 days.

This new record set by CS2 sees the game now within striking distance of surpassing CS:GO's all-time player peak, 1,802,853 concurrent players, which was set back in May 2023 in the final months of the beloved title which saw the CS2 beta also help bolster those numbers.

The new record further repudiates the pessimistic narrative floating around at the start of the year that CS2 was "unplayable" and a "dead game", with a steady cadence of updates from Valve also helping to greatly improve the game and push out new content throughout the past twelve months.