How Many People Are Playing CS:GO In 2023?

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most popular titles in both the FPS and Esports world. Ever since its launch in 2012 as the fourth entry in the series, Global Offensive has become infamous for its often-toxic communities, high skill ceiling, competitive scene and influence around the gaming space. But how popular is the game today? Join us here at Gamelevate as we run through the latest CS:GO player count to see how many people are playing the game in 2023!

By The Numbers: How Many People Play CS:GO?

The CS:GO player count really ballooned back in April and May 2020, jumping to 1.3 million concurrent players for the first time in its history.

Most put this surge in players mainly down to the pandemic keeping us all inside however, perhaps surprisingly, it looks as though most of those players have stayed fairly stable since then.

From August 2022, CS:GO has continued to average over 1 million concurrent players, with the highest peak player count being 1,129,095 in November.

But, coming into 2023, these numbers have only gone on to grow even further. In January 2023, the game’s player count averaged 709,380 players, a peak player count of 1,133,610 (a +12.72% gain from December 2022).

One look at the most popular Steam games will show CS:GO at the top of the table, and by some margin. At the time of writing, CS:GO is sitting at 716,470 players in the game, with Dota 2 and PUBG the nearest competitors at 368,915 and 254,614 respectively.

CS:GO vs Valorant Player Count

There have been more than a few games over the years that have been touted as the next ‘CS:GO killer’. But, the hype around Riot’s 2020 release of Valorant undoubtedly came with the biggest amount of bluster behind it. With a huge company behind it with a huge amount of financial muscle, pro players began switching allegiance, though the latest CS:GO vs Valorant player count reveals most still prefer the classics.

In all, Valorant averages roughly 17 million players each month. Compare that to CS:GO’s 36 million, and things are looking rather lop-sided in favor of the Valve title.

With that said, the competition has definitely helped spark more updates, patches, and fixes across CS:GO. The competitive map pool has been tweaked much more in recent times compared to years previous, and the impending Source 2 engine update is set completely revamp Global Offensive as a game.