Counter-Strike 2 is finally here and has more players just hours after its release than titles like DOTA 2, Apex Legends, and GTA V combined.
On September 27th, it finally happened, Counter-Strike 2 was officially released. Many fans had been waiting for months and can now finally dive into Valve’s tactical shooter. This is also reflected in the player numbers on Steam.
How successful is CS2 shortly after release? By midnight CET, Counter-Strike 2 had more players than the next 9 games combined, reaching 1.191 million concurrent players. The nine subsequent games reached only 1.072 million at midnight.
Here are the player numbers of the top 10 games on Steam at midnight in overview via Steamdb:
- Counter-Strike 2: 1,191,143
- DOTA 2: 310,386
- Baldur’s Gate 3: 203,315
- Cyberpunk 2077: 163,200
- Starfield: 96,094
- PUBG: 92,585
- Apex Legends: 84,553
- Grand Theft Auto V: 53,853
- Unturned: 50,971
- Naraka: Bladepoint: 17,125
Even on the morning after the release, CS2’s numbers look good. The shooter reaches 1,136 million players at 10:30 (via Steamdb).
How should the numbers be interpreted? The player numbers indicate a successful release, especially when compared to how many players Counter-Strike: Global Offensive had at a particular time in the days leading up to the release.
The day before, on the evening of September 26th, CS2’s predecessor had 832,839 players at midnight. In direct comparison, CS2 had about 300,000 more players.
However, it is expected that the player numbers of CS2 will continue to rise throughout the day. Counter-Strike typically reaches its daily peak between 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM.
However, the player counts of the nine titles that CS2 left behind at midnight will also rise. DOTA usually reaches over 600,000 in the afternoon, PUBG over 350,000, and Apex Legends up to 400,000. Also, for Naraka: Bladepoint, midnight is a dead time – player numbers regularly exceed 200,000 in the afternoon.
How much can CS2’s numbers still increase? CS:GO usually reaches 1.2 to 1.4 million players in the afternoon. The peak of the past 30 days was even at 1.556 million.
If CS2 can also increase its numbers by 300,000 compared to CS:GO in the afternoon, we can expect up to 1.7 million players. The all-time peak of Counter-Strike is currently at 1.8 million and dates back to May 2023. It’s quite possible that we will see a new player count record with CS2.
Streamer DrDisrespect reportedly knew before the release of CS2 that the tactical shooter would be released on September 27th:
DrDisrespect knows that Counter-Strike 2 is coming to Steam today: ‘I made a few calls’
