Update March 1, 2020 The record has been broken again.
In the year of our lord 2020, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has once again smashed its concurrent player record. Not only that, but it’s the neither the first nor second time this year, this month even, the multiplayer tactical shooter has outdone its own player count.
Courtesy of Steam Charts, the most recent data has Counter-Strike: Global Offensive superseding its previous concurrent players threshold of just over 900,000, for a new record of 924,045. The previous highest number was in the second week of February, where the online FPS game’s count clocked 901,681 playing at once.
Though these peaks are in themselves impressive, what’s most exciting are the jumps. The record as of the first week of February, 876,575, was a leap of over 25,000 above the previous highest count from 2016, and now we have a jump of over 45,000, in the space of weeks. Global Offensive, a game now eight years old in a series that just turned the legal drinking age in the US, is bringing in players en masse, and many of them are sticking around. Average playership has maintained above 400,000 since August 2019, cracking 500,000 in January.
For many involved in CS:GO, this will all just confirm what they already know about the game and its scene’s popularity. Competitive play is one of the largest and most consistent esports – the IEM Katowice, a major annual tournament, is happening right now and drew over one million concurrent viewers at its highest point over the weekend between Twitch and Youtube.
Players new and old are getting to check out an update that mopped up some classic maps, as well as the usual set of tweaks and alterations. Counter-Strike’s literal global offensive is ongoing with Brazil hosting its first major next year, something which has no doubt sparked interest in the region. Going free back in 2018 certainly didn’t hurt, either.
We consider Counter-Strike: Global Offensive one of the best sniper games on PC, so make sure to sharpen your marksmanship if you’re considering giving it a go.