Counter-Strike is celebrating its 20th birthday, here’s what fans and prominent figures are saying

Today is the official 20th birthday of the Counter-Strike franchise.

It all started with a Half-Life modification in 1999 and, since then, Counter-Strike has become one of the most popular online games in the world.

To celebrate, CS:GO’s developers brought one of the best gifts the community could have: the old Dust 2 map from Counter-Strike 1.6 is now available in a CS:GO casual mod.

Meanwhile, on social media, fans and major figures in the community are celebrating the game’s landmark birthday.

On the CS:GO subreddit, a screenshot was posted showing the co-creators Mihn Lee and Jess Cliffe decided on the game’s name.

Here are what a few major figures in the community had to say about the game’s birthday.

Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, MIBR’s captain:

Finn “karrigan” Andersen, mousesport’s captain:

Jason “moses” O’Toole, caster and analyst:

Jack Ettiene, Cloud9 CEO:

Although CS:GO has been free-to-play since December 2018, Valve still earns money from the game’s cosmetic, like skins or stickers.

The professional scene is more active than ever, with more tournament organizers and teams ready to invest in it. The game has been around for 20 years and yet hasn’t given a sign of slowing down in terms of playerbase and viewership.