CS2 players clearly prefer 2 maps over the rest, according to Premier’s statistics

Mirage and Inferno are the favorite maps of CS2 players in Premier mode, according to statistics shared by CS:GOstats.gg on Sept. 15.

Premier was added to the CS2 beta on Aug. 31 and is a competitive mode that features a unique rating system and a pick-and-ban phase, which means players don’t know what map they’ll play beforehand. Mirage was the most popular map out of all seven as it has a 27.12 percent pick rate, and Inferno comes in next with a 21.44 percent pick rate. This is based on Premier data collected from Sept. 1 to 7.

It makes sense that Mirage is one of the most popular maps in CS2 as it’s been one of the most played maps across the 11 years of CS:GO‘s life cycle. Inferno is also popular in CS:GO and Valve did great work with the CS2 version of the map. Funnily enough, it’s common to see players asking Valve to overhaul Mirage on Twitter or Reddit, but they might be just a loud minority as data shows people still love the map.

While Overpass and Nuke are still decently picked in CS2, players definitely preferred to stay away from Vertigo, Ancient, and most notably Anubis (4.07 pick rate) between Sept. 1 to 7. One CS2 player wrote on Reddit that every time they played Anubis, it was a bad experience—and I second that.

Not a lot of players want or have the time to learn some basic grenades and callouts for every competitive map, which is why Mirage and Inferno are the most popular. Even if you only know a smoke or two on those maps, you still have a good chance to win matches because of the way they’re designed.

While it’s possible you’ll get to play some of the maps with low pick rates depending on your team, if you really wish to diversify and play all seven options in the Active Duty map pool, the only way you can do that is to queue with at least two friends so you can be in charge of the pick-and-ban phase.