Despite the immense popularity of Counter-Strike 2, its predecessor, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, has achieved an all-time peak in concurrent players since becoming a standalone title again. According to SteamDB, the game recently reached over 68,000 simultaneous players.
This surge is a significant achievement for a 14-year-old game that is not readily searchable on Steam. The player count for the standalone Global Offensive is comparable to that of Deadlock, another Valve game that cannot be found through a simple search. Currently, Global Offensive ranks as the 28th most played game on Steam, surpassing titles like Baldur's Gate 3, Rainbow Six Siege, and Battlefield 6.
This phenomenon suggests that the player base can indeed support multiple iterations of the Counter-Strike franchise. The original Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Source also maintain healthy player communities. This diverse landscape within the tactical FPS genre remains robust, even when focusing solely on games bearing the "Counter-Strike" name. The continued growth of Global Offensive indicates an ongoing interest beyond the initial hype surrounding its standalone reintroduction earlier this year.