Launched in 2012, Counter-Strike Global Offensive continued the evolution of the popular team-based multiplayer shooter series that first began as a third-party mod for the original Half-Life over 20 years ago. The game continues to be updated and supported, and went to a free-to-play model in 2016. Even though the game is now 11 years old, it just hit a new high for its number of concurrent online players.
On Februray 11, Steam's stats page for the most played games on the PC gaming service recorded 1,320,219 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players online at the same time (via Rock Paper Shotgun). That beats the previous record of 1,308,963 players that was set in April 2022. It's important to note that the previous record date was made at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the majority of people were staying home, and likely playing lots of online games to pass the time.
So why is there a new concurrent record of players for an 11 year old game? Part of the reason might be that the game is simply still fun to play, even on PCs with relatively low hardware specs. Another reason is that Valve has added new content to the game on a fairly regular basis.
Another one of Valve's multiplayer games that continues to be popular is Team Fortress 2. Last week, Valve asked TF2 mod makers to submit content like maps, weapons and more so that Valve can launch the first big content update for the game in several years. That could help boost its already high player count.
Source: Steam Stats via Rock Paper Shotgun
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