Valve’s CS:GO has broken its concurrent playerbase record, surpassing 1.5 million simultaneous players on 25 March.
The cause for this sudden influx of players is most likely attributable to the excitement around Counter Strike 2; with a limited test of the game coming soon, the criteria for becoming a potential tester includes having a high number of hours in recent playtime on Valve’s servers.
Player figures
1.5 million concurrent players marks the highest number ever seen in CS:GO and continues a trend of record-breaking highs seen by the game this year. The official announcement of Counter Strike 2 has caused an even bigger stir, particularly with the knowledge that players’ Steam account standings and trust factors are being considered when selecting playtesters.
Playtime remains the key metric though, hence so many players jumping in at the same time.
As for when the beta test is starting, or when people will begin to be added, no confirmation has yet been given.
While breaking its own record, CS:GO is still not the most-played game concurrently on Steam; that accolade belongs to PUBG, which has reached over 3 million simultaneous gamers. However, on the day of Steam’s overall player record of 30 million concurrent users, CS:GO was the most played title.
Late last year, the Steam App saw major updates including remote downloads after appearing to have taken inspiration from one major player in the mobile space, Tencent’s WeChat app. Since the introduction of the Steam Deck, in fact, Valve seems to have been returning to other platforms which it generally neglected in comparison to the flagship storefront on PC.
Similarly, it has only been a recent development that mobile gaming has come to rise in popularity within the esports space, previously dominated by PC. Fundamentally Games CSO Oscar Clark gave his opinion of what mobile games need to do in order to win.
