For the first time since both games have been on the market, CS:GO has exceeded Dota 2’s all-time concurrent player peak with 1.3 million players during the coronavirus pandemic.
Numbers for both titles have been steadily rising throughout the period of social distancing, prompting more people to download and play games on Steam. But CS:GO set its all-time record and passed the popular MOBA, too.
Dota 2 peaked in March 2016, hitting 1,291,328 players. It then steadily declined from there while maintaining an average of 500,000 players from then until now. Meanwhile, CS:GO has been on the uptrend since last November, slowly gaining new players until it broke one million for the first time in March.
CS:GO peaked at 1,301,348 players earlier today, according to the Steam and Game Stats page, officially hitting the highest mark in franchise history while also maintaining the top spot overall on Steam.
CS:GO has averaged 807,981 concurrent players over the last 30 days, according to Steam Charts. That makes it the most-played game on Steam by an average of just over 300,000 players, beating out Dota’s 473,491 average.
These numbers continue to climb during the coronavirus outbreak, but they might see a slow decline soon due to Riot Games’ VALORANT starting to allow more people into the closed beta and eventually fully launching. It’s clear that CS:GO won’t just drop off once another popular shooter becomes available, but the streaming numbers suggest that things could get messy for at least a short time.
