CS:GO hits over one million concurrent players

Valve’s first-person shooter CS:GO reached a new milestone earlier today after logging over one million concurrent players. 

Although the game officially released in 2012 following the success of Counter-Strike: Source in 2004, this is the first time that CS:GO has had over one million concurrent players. The closest month in terms of player count was February 2020 with 916,996 players at its peak, according to SteamCharts. 

CS:GO is currently the most played game on Steam, leaving every other game in the dust. Dota 2, the second most popular game on Steam, peaked at over 694,829 concurrent players today, which is 312,233 players less than CS:GO, according to Steampowered. 

The increase in players could be partly caused by the ongoing concerns surrounding COVID-19. In Italy, for example, where there are 17,660 cases of the virus, kids are straining internet providers because they’re staying inside rather than risking catching the virus. 

“We reported an increase of more than 70% of Internet traffic over our landline network, with a big contribution from online gaming such as Fortnite,” Telecom Italia Chief Executive Officer Luigi Gubitosi said, according to Bloomberg. This could suggest that more players are staying inside and playing other games like CS:GO. 

CS:GO isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, but perhaps Riot Games’ VALORANT will attempt to cash-in on the die-hard FPS community with the game’s release later this year.