The CS:GO concurrent player count has been growing over the past month, with the shooter consistently breaking its peak concurrent player record. This weekend, following the announcement of Counter-Strike 2, the game saw another surge, surpassing over 1.5 million players online at once.
Since Valve officially revealed Counter-Strike 2, CS:GO has witnessed a new wave of returning players. According to SteamDB, on the same day Counter-Strike 2 was announced (March 23rd), CS:GO broke its previous peak player count on Steam with over 1.4M players. The day after, the record was broken again with 1,415,826 players in-game at the same time, which was broken the following day again with over 1.5M players (1,507,212). Lastly, the game reached a new record peak player count over the weekend with 1,519,457 players.
Despite the impressive 1.5M peak players, it's still the second-highest peak player count in Steam's history. In the first place, with 3,255,248 peak concurrent players (5 years ago), there's PUBG: Battlegrounds. Completing the podium, there's Lost Ark with 1,325,305 peak concurrent players (14 months ago).
Counter-Strike 2 is expected to release this Summer as a free upgrade for CS:GO owners. As such, players can carry over their items into the new game. The game is currently in closed beta, with Valve sending out small waves of invites to eligible CS:GO players.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru says: To get into the Counter-Strike 2 beta, you need to have recent playtime on Valve's official CS:GO servers. With that in mind, it is likely that a lot of players are now returning in hopes of securing a beta invite.