Let’s go over a couple of things and find out if indeed CSGO is dying slowly or if this FPS can withstand the test of time!
What’s the current CSGO player count?
Did you know that CS:GO just had over 900,000 unique players logged in the game in the last 24 hours?
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was released in 2012 and player count reached an all-time high three years ago in April 2016, when roughly 850,000 unique players had logged into the game at the same time. Currently, CS:GO averages 900,000 unique visits daily.
Due to the COVID situation, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive became even more popular. A couple of years ago, this FPS title averaged around 500,000 players per 24 hours. However, current stats suggest something very different. Roughly around 900,000 are actively playing CSGO in the last 24 hours. On top of that, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive set a new record of 1.305,714 concurrent players.
It also helps that the game is now free-to-play! (Unless you go for PRIME, which is CSGO’s full package costing $15 only).
Even though other games like Fortnite, PUBG, and Apex Legends have reached insane numbers since their releases, CSGO still managed to retain 70% of its competitive and casual players. So we could dare to say that CSGO is still doing relatively well!
Read also: CSGO vs CoD – Which is Better?
Is CSGO dying because of other esports titles?
CSGO vs PUBG
The “Is CSGO dying” question heavily relates to PUBG. This was one of the first popular Battle Royale games which took the entire gaming scene by storm. It was logical that thousands of players would want to transfer to PUBG just to see what all the fuss was about. Obviously, the player count started to decline for CSGO.
PUBG set an all-time record of 3,230,000 unique players in a very short span of time and yet, less than half of these players return to the game.
There were several reasons for PUBG’s shortcomings. Firstly, the game was awfully optimized. Secondly, PUBG’s gameplay had become repetitive and boring. CSGO die-hard fans came rushing back once they spotted all of PUBG’s flaws.
At the time of writing, PUBG is nowhere to be found. For a game that set such a high peak, we were expecting more. Around 400,000 players actively play this game during a 24-hour span.
Fortnite vs CSGO
Truth be told, there is no point in comparing Fortnite vs CSGO. Even though CSGO popularity is on the rise, Fortnite took over the entire world by storm.
If we are to talk about numbers, Fortnite is heavily beating Counter-Strike. From what I was able to find out, Fortnite has roughly around 75 million players per month. On the other hand, CSGO averages around 20 million active players per month.
However, these two games are very different in one important aspect, esports. We all know that battle royale games will never be popular as esports. Eventually, games like Fortnite and PUBG will die.
As for CSGO. 2019 was an excellent year for this title as there were over 300 tournaments hosted all around the globe. Out of 312 events played in 2019, we have seen a total of $22.511,510 awarded.
In 2020, we can freely state that CSGO is a much better and more popular esports then Fortnite. Even though Counter-Strike will never reach the numbers Fortnite set, we would dare to say that Fortnite will never overcome CSGO as an esports. Despite Epic Games investing a lot of money into the Fortnite esports scene, we believe that it will not be enough.
CSGO vs Valorant
The biggest competition that CSGO ever had. We all know that Fortnite and PUBG are games that will die over time since everyone will get tired of battle royale games. However, Riot Games released an excellent mixture of Overwatch and CSGO. 5v5 competitive shooter is just what Counter-Strike needed.
Truth be told, player count already skyrocketed above Counter-Strike. Here is the catch. Ever since Valorant was released, CSGO developers had to work hard in order to maintain the player count. Constant updates and “quality of life” fixes that we requested several years ago are slowly but surely being implemented. We also believe that this would not happen if Valorant was not released.
Read also: Valorant Betting Tips
Why is CSGO still popular?
CSGO betting and the possibility of adding skins to CSGO was one of the reasons why CSGO became so popular in the gaming world and Esports in general. A lot of people played the game purely for skins. Even though most of these gambling activities were provided by unlicensed sites, it simply amused and entertained people.
A lot of people thought that CSGO would die if the skin industry shutdown. And after cease and desist letter had been sent to all the popular skin gambling websites, we did see CSGO’s player count drop. Nonetheless, once the players realized that there were no other games that could compare, they came rushing back.
Did you know that CSGO has the most esports tournaments and leagues out of all esports titles?
This is another factor contributing to its popularity. These tournaments have insane viewerships, reaching over 1M concurrent viewers across all broadcasting platforms.
How to increase CSGO player count and avoid its impending doom?
There are several ways to increase the player count. Given the fact that there are over 5000 professional players on the scene, Valve cannot alter with the game as much. However, they can definitely add more content and make this game a bit more diverse.
Cheating and toxicity have always been a problem in the CSGO community, even though there were a couple of attempts in order to minimise these. Valve tried launching PRIME matchmaking in order to tie players to only one Steam account. But buying another SIM card is not a problem for anyone.
VAC is simply not a good enough anti-cheat system. Nonetheless, Valve could easily set up agreements with third-party providers such as FACEIT and ESEA; both of which have an excellent anti-cheat system put in place. It’s a shame that Valve is not doing more about this.
Tickrate is another big problem in CSGO. At the moment, FACEIT and ESEA are both using 128-tick servers, while official matchmaking is stuck with 64-tick ones. This would not remedy gameplay at all, but it would greatly help out the entire community and it would make overall gameplay better.
Therefore… is CSGO dying or is CSGO still popular in 2020?
There will always be people asking the same question, “is CSGO dying?”. From my perspective, CS GO is looking better than ever.
The numbers are increasing every month and who knows, maybe 2021 will be a breakout year for this Counter-Strike game. If we take a closer look at the Steam charts, we can clearly see that the most popular game on Steam is CS GO.
Is CSGO dead? Stats suggest that it is not. The player base is constantly increasing. Given the fact that the game itself was released back in 2012, we can say that this FPS title is doing really well, especially once compared to the games released in 2012.
In the last 30 days, we have seen around 900,000 gamers playing CS GO. So if someone asks you is CSGO dying, feel free to point them at this article. The future is definitely bright for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, despite some of the best CSGO players moving to Valorant.
Read also: CSGO Power Rankings
Conclusion – For the People Who Think That CSGO is Dead
Trust me when I say it, 2020 will be a very successful year for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Valve finally started working on this game.
There are roughly around 800,000 players playing this game every 24 hours and I am positive that CS:GO will breach 1 million concurrent players in 2020.
Hopefully, Valve will continue working on the game and who knows, maybe we are in for another operation in early 2020. On top of that, we are seeing Grand Slams and Leagues appearing on the CSGO esports scene.
A lot of top promotions are coming together to create the best events possible for the entire community. All in all, CSGO is not dying and given the fact that this game was released in 2012, I would dare to say that it is looking better than ever for the most popular FPS title in the world.
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