One Full Calendar Year of Counter-Strike 2 Esports Under Review

Earlier this week marked one year of CS2 esports competition. Counter-Strike had the most significant update in more than a decade, and is still one of the most popular esports in the world.

In my featured article, I am reviewing this past year and outlining Valve’s misses and successes under the lens of esports betting.

Top 10 Counter-Strike 2 Players
Image Credits: PGL

How did the top CS2 tournaments perform this year?

Kicking this review off, let’s take a look at the very best CS2 tournaments so far. While we were never concerned about the frequency or quality of tournaments since the transition, Valve has done well to maintain the excitement for CS esports in general.

According to Esports Charts, here’s a look at the top 5 most viewed Counter-Strike tournaments for both CS and CS2:

RankCS TournamentPeak ViewershipCS:GO or CS2?
#1PGL Major Stockholm 20212,748,434CS:GO
#2PGL Major Antwerp 20222,113,610CS:GO
#3PGL Major Copenhagen 20241,853,954CS2
#4BLAST.tv Paris Major 20231,528,724CS:GO
#5IEM Rio Major 20221,428,993CS:GO

Since BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, the nineteenth and final CS:GO Major of all-time, CS2 tournaments have had a year to leave an impression on the community. The first and only CS2 Major so far, the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 was relatively successful. Next up on the CS2 Majors calendar is the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 later this year in November.

On the whole, the community doesn’t have any complaints from the tournament side of things with a competitive scene and plenty of tournaments. However, there is some negative feedback.

Updates are the primary community complaints for CS2

While the competition has been fantastic, the community is complaining about Counter-Strike 2 from a different aspect. After one year of CS2, community forums are saturated with complaints over a lack of updates, content and even social media activity. This includes false promises such as the CS2 map Train being showcased in the trailer but still not being released.

In addition, simple game modes such as team Deathmatch are still not part of Counter-Strike 2.

Other complaints include: matchmaking, servers and anti-cheat. The main concern being the fact that Valve is putting so much effort into their other title – Deadlock.

Player Counts remain stable after one year

How do these complaints relate to the CS2 player counts?

Is CS2 Dying? One Year Esports Review
Image Credits: Valve

Thanks to Steam Charts, we have an accurate idea as to how the player count of CS2 has fluctuated 1 year since release:

CS2 Time IntervalSteam Charts Peak Concurrent Player Count
Day One (September 2023) 1,300,000
Three Months (December-January)1,277,907
Six Months (April 2024) 1,618,685
One Year (September 30 2024) 983,975

This past month especially, a significant decline of active players was observed.

While a lack of updates may be one of many factors, Counter-Strike’s competitors such as Riot Games’ VALORANT are constantly updating their titles and keeping things new and exciting for players. While there are concerns over “CS2 dying“, player count fluctuations are normal.

I still think CS2 is fantastic for esports betting. Valve needs to infuse the title with more energy via updates – not so much as content updates, but game fixes and tweaks which the community has been expecting for a while now.


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Gabriel Sciberras
Gabriel Sciberras

Since: February 7, 2023

Gabriel is a content writer and editor at EsportsBets, covering every related esports scene and topic under the sun, apart from plenty of experience in the realm of technology and gaming. When he's not covering international news, he's focused on the local Maltese scene.

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