CS:GO is Steam's second-biggest game ever, clocking up over 1.5m concurrent players this weekend

CS:GO
(Image credit: Valve)

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive may be one of gaming's oldest shooters, but it's currently the most popular game on Steam right now – and the second-most-popular game of all time.

That's right; despite releasing over 11 years ago, CS:GO has never been more popular. The shooter has just broken its own concurrent user record - the term given to the number of players logged into a game simultaneously - topping 1,519,457 concurrent players over the weekend (thanks, SteamDB). 

Before recent rumors began to fly, sparking renewed interest in the game and pushing up player numbers, CS:GO's last long-held record was 1,308,963 concurrent players, set back during the first pandemic lockdown.

It's likely no coincidence that the record comes the same week the next generation of Valve's iconic FPS, Counter-Strike 2, was finally announced. It currently targets a summer 2023 release window, but a limited test is already up and running.

With a concurrent 1,519,457 peak, that makes CS:GO Steam's second biggest game ever, second only to PUBG: Battlegrounds, which sports a staggering concurrent record of 3.2m players.

Steam, too, is incredibly popular at the moment. Its upward trend began three years ago, in January 2020, when the world began to self-isolate at the start of the COVID-19 crisis. On February 2, Steam's existing record of 18,537,490 users – set in January 2018 – was surpassed, smashing the existing record by an impressive 300,000 to peak at 18,801,944 players. 

It's gone on to be broken several times since, including a weekend in March 2020 that saw numbers breach 20 million for the first time. We then saw 24.7 million users peak in December 2020, 26.5 million in February 2021, and at the end of October, the PC platform topped 30 million users at once for the first time.

And would you believe it? Yep, the record has been smashed again this weekend, hitting a staggering 33,598,520 concurrent users earlier today, 10.1 million of which were actively in a game and playing at the time the record was set.

Did you see that a Counter-Strike fan thinks they've found a reference to "Left4Dead3" in the files for CS2?

TOPICS
CATEGORIES
Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter. 

Read more
Monster Hunter Wilds trailer screenshot showing a young woman with long blonde hair tied back into a ponytail smiling slightly, pumping her left fist in the air
Steam has doubled in size in just 5 years, as Monster Hunter Wilds' launch pushes it beyond 40 million concurrent users
Monster Hunter Wilds
Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, and now Dota 2 fall to Monster Hunter Wilds as it crosses 1.3 million peak Steam players despite 49% positive reviews
Baldur's Gate 3
All Steam users only spent 15% of their time this year playing games that actually came out in 2024
The Fantastic Four seen in Marvel Rivals' Season 1 'Eternal Night Falls' trailer.
Marvel Rivals is more popular than ever, soaring past 570K Steam players to set a new record as Season 1 launches
Jeff the Land Shark as he appears in Marvel Rivals
Marvel Rivals joins Manor Lords, Palworld, and Helldivers 2 as one of Steam's best-selling and most-played new releases of 2024 despite launching at the end of the year
Best free Steam games - Doom Eternal image showing a large armored enemy with a gun for an arm
25 Best free Steam games you can play right now
Latest in FPS
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Battlefield dev reveals more of his Bad Company 3 script and confirms the plot would revolve around the squad getting kicked out of the military and brought back for a final suicide mission
A Titan readies for combat in an animated trailer for Apex Legends Season 19
Yet another Respawn shooter has reportedly been canceled, following the studio's Star Wars FPS and rumored Titanfall Legends game to the grave
A cropped screenshot from the pre-alpha gameplay footage shown in the 'Introducing Battlefield Labs' video.
Battlefield 6's first teaser takes me back to the days of Modern Warfare 2 lobbies and 24/7 Metro matches, proving we all crave a return to shooters' simpler times
Doom
Doom: The Dark Ages' new cutscenes exist because of fans' unlikely obsession with the series' lore: "A Doom game that doesn’t have a story is just an arcade game”
Battlefield Bad Company 2
"I am freaked out by how much might actually have been accurate": Battlefield Bad Company 3 writer unearths forgotten script
Fragpunk
Marvel Rivals publisher indefinitely delays its other hero shooter on Xbox and PS5 2 days before its free-to-play launch
Latest in News
Players in GTA Online running businesses and playing missions
GTA publisher is suing a GTA Online website that lets you buy hacked accounts, which "risks upending the GTA 5 player experience"
Death Stranding 2 trailer showing Sam shooting at an enemy
Hideo Kojima aims to beat the ‘walking simulator’ allegations as Death Stranding 2 releases combat-heavy trailer
Giancarlo Esposito and Stanley Tucci in The Electric State
Stars Stanley Tucci and Giancarlo Esposito say their new dystopian sci-fi movie The Electric State is more like our own reality than we might realize
Suikoden
Suikoden lead hopes to expand the cult JRPG series "beyond where it ended" and would happily follow Zelda to the silver screen: "If you have any friends in Hollywood, please let us know"
Stardew Valley Baldur's Gate 3 mod Baldur's Village
Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke gives his official approval to the Stardew Valley mod that brings the D&D RPG to Pelican Town
Kaitlyn Dever as Abby in The Last Of Us season 2
The Last of Us season 2's Abby star Kaitlyn Dever admits it's been hard to not look at character backlash on the internet