A few years ago, Valve decided its flagship title was a relic of the past, one that needed to be sacrificed so that another more advanced game could take its place. However, not everyone shared this mindset with the Seattle-based company and as soon as the game was back on its platform, tens of thousands jumped to play it once more.
And now it is the 28th most-played game on Steam by concurrent numbers. I am, of course, talking about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valve’s 2013 sleeper hit that became a, well, global phenomenon and the most popular first-person shooter on the market. In September 2023, just around 10 years after the original came out, Valve shut the game down and replaced it with CS2, an evolved and supposedly improved title.
In essence, Valve didn’t change so much, and the two are nigh identical, but a lot of nostalgic folks yearned to return to the classic vibes of the original Source, and the game is now among the 30 titles on Steam with the most concurrent players, with 57,000 in-game as of this article.
It stands above the likes of Baldur’s Gate 3, Rainbow Six Siege, and even Valve’s own Deadlock, proving there is still interest in “old” games and that the future does not sit right with everyone. Worthy of noting is the fact that a lot of people were probably still playing CSGO anyway, but we could not keep track of the numbers because Valve kept the apps combined, i.e., you had to use CS2 and its beta system to get to CSGO.
As of a few months ago, the apps are once again separate, proving that there are still many who would rather enjoy the classic CS experience rather than move on to greener pastures.
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