The prospect of Counter-Strike 2 has a lot of people playing CS:GO, with a new all-time peak player record of 1,519,457 being set today. That's a number reported by both SteamDB and Steamcharts, and it's wildly higher than CS:GO's prior high water marks. CS:GO's previous high point was in April 2020, when pandemic lockdowns across the world saw many games—and Steam itself—report record player numbers.
That's because Counter-Strike 2 was announced this week. It's a real game, it's free, and everything in it carries over from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Everyone's fancy skins are going to Source Engine 2 land. Yes, even that one person's $150,000 gun skin. It has sent the CS skin marketplace straight to crazytown.
