Summary
- Counter-Strike 2 has gained a massive player base since its release, surpassing its predecessor Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in popularity.
- The Source 2 port of Counter-Strike 2 is highly anticipated by the gaming community, as it offers improved visuals and mechanics.
- Concerns about hacking and cheating in the game have been addressed with a new anti-cheat system called VAC Live, which carries over bans from CS:GO.
The recent release of Counter-Strike 2 has attracted an impressive amount of players. After some months of drip-feeding information to those who did not get invited into the Counter-Strike 2 limited beta, Valve has finally dropped the curtain on the latest iteration of its popular tactical first-person shooter, replacing the 11-year-old Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has been shattering its player count records in 2023, possibly thanks to the news that the game was to finally receive a significant update. Counter-Strike 2 is essentially an enhanced port of CS:GO to Valve's Source 2 engine from the nearly 2 decades old Source engine. This port has been anticipated by many players for years after Dota 2 was ported from Source to Source 2 back in 2015.
Counter-Strike 2 has attracted over 1.3 million players in the day since it launched. This has placed it right at the top of SteamDB's "Most played games" chart, outstripping the number 2 title DOTA 2 by nearly 800,000 players. The all-time peak concurrent player count set by CS:GO stands at over 1.8 million. It remains to be seen if Counter-Strike 2 will top this record, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. The improved visuals and mechanics may be enough to attract enough new players to break it in the coming days or weeks.
It is difficult to gauge how the community feels about Counter-Strike 2 so soon after launch, but the player numbers are promising. The Counter-Strike community has waited a long time for the Source 2 port. One of the biggest issues with Counter-Strike over time has been hacking and cheating, as such an improved anti-cheat system has been at the top of many a player's Counter Strike 2 wishlist. It's probably going to take some time until improvements, if any, are noticed.
Those worried about Counter-Strike 2 being flooded with hackers should know that bans from CS:GO carry over to the updated title, and that Valve has introduced a new anti-cheat system called VAC Live that may be significantly more effective than the original Valve Anti Cheat. There may be some initial issues now that the game has been released to the general public, but nothing grave has been reported for the moment. With all that said, the numbers seen indicate that Counter-Strike is more popular than ever.
Counter Strike 2 is available now for PC.
Source: SteamDB