 hits a new all-time high player count on Steam in February 2025, approaching the peak of CS:GO.){kind=link}
We’re only two months into 2025, and it’s already shaping up to be a great year for Counter-Strike 2 fans, as the shooter has seen a massive surge in player numbers amid rising concerns over the lack of new content.
On February 16, 2025, CS2 reached a record-high player count on Steam, accumulating the highest number of players since its official launch in September 2023.
As per data from SteamDB, the Valve title hit a player peak of a whopping 1,744,015 players at around 13:00 UTC, setting a new all-time high for the game.
Given the lack of new content CS2 has faced since the Armory update back in October 2024, the exact reason behind the recent surge in the game’s player count seems unclear.
Interestingly, the new CS2 player peak comes just a week after the conclusion of the IEM Katowice 2025, one of the most prestigious tournaments in the Counter-Strike scene. Needless to say, the hype surrounding the event has certainly been a contributing factor to the massive growth that the game has seen over the past month.
Prior to the release of CS2, its predecessor, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, set its own player peak in May 2023 with 1.8 million players simultaneously tuning into the game while waiting for the launch of the sequel.
A couple of months later, Valve officially unveiled CS2 in September 2023. However, the game failed to live up to the hype due to rampant issues with the subtick system, various bugs, and the recurring problem of cheaters.
Over the past year, the devs have actively worked on addressing the issues that plagued CS2’s launch, which has consequently led to a noticeable increase in player count.
With PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 currently underway, the rising player count of CS2 isn’t expected to stop anytime soon. In fact, it seems to be just a matter of time before it surpasses the player peak of CS:GO, setting a new milestone for itself on Steam.