Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, or CS:GO as it’s fondly called, has hit the mammoth milestone of having 1 million players on Steam battling it out in the game concurrently. The game was first released back in 2012, and has since then never managed to lose its popularity or its hype even one bit. It still remains the most popular game on Steam by a huge margin, with Dota 2 being on the second spot, with a peak of 6,89,906 concurrent players.
It isn’t hard to guess what has led to this current swell in the number of players in CS:GO. The ongoing coronavirus outbreak all over the world is forcing people to impose isolation on themselves due to fears of catching the virus in public places. Indoor entertainment is hence seeing a big boom right now. In fact, the number of total players online on Steam also broke a record recently, having crossed the 19 million mark.
CS:GO was released as the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series, which focused on pitting terrorists and counter-terrorists against each other in multiplayer battles across a variety of maps. The game saw huge changes in 2018, which is when it transitioned to a free-to-play model, no longer requiring a full purchase. The same year, a battle royale mode was also introduced, in keeping with the times.
Despite the free-to-play model though, CS:GO still has huge revenue coming in from the sale of cosmetic items like gun skins and more on Steam. Besides, the game has always been a favorite among eSports players. Since its release, it has drawn in an estimated 11 million players per month, and it still keeps doing so.
You can indulge in CS:GO right now by heading to Steam and downloading the game for free.