- January has seen a peak of almost 1.2 million simultaneous CS:GO players
- That number is just 100K away from beating the all-time record from April 2022
- CS:GO has been seeing a steady rise in the player count since August last year
With the competitive CS:GO season well underway and promising even more big events, the game is seeing a large increase in its active player numbers.
CS:GO Sees Significant Player Rise
The Covid-19 pandemic hit virtually every facet of human life during the past few years, including the world of esports and gaming, with many events being canceled or postponed and players falling ill. However, many franchises’ popularity paradoxically got bigger as many people were stuck inside due to the widely implemented Covid-19 restrictions. As they suddenly didn’t have much to do at home, people spent their time playing and watching more video games, resulting in the rise of popularity of many franchises.
CS:GO was no exception to that, as the game saw a large increase in its player base and viewership on streaming sites. Having been released in 2012, the game’s player count is still rising, seeing a huge peak during the middle of the pandemic. The player number dropped significantly following the lifting of the restrictions, as players were finally able to do different things away from their computers.
However, it seems that trend is once again reversing, as SteamCharts showed that January was a massive month for the Valve game. The stats tracking website showed that CS:GO hit a peak of 1 199 684 concurrent players within a 24-hour period this month, with over a million still playing at the time of writing of this article. Although this January record is still 100K players far from CS:GO’s all-time record from April 2020, it’s still an impressive number, showing the game is vastly popular over a decade after its release.
What Caused the Player Increase?
The past month saw a 14.5% increase in the daily average of CS:GO gamers, meaning that more than 90 000 additional players played the game. The reason for this substantial increase in the player base is most likely linked to the fact that BLAST Premier had their Spring Groups in January. BLAST also recently revealed their CS:GO calendar for 2023, additionally adding to the hype around the games. Other massive competitive events like IEM Katowice 2023 and EPL S17 are also just around the corner.
Interestingly, this same pattern seems to repeat at the start of each year. In January 2022, CS:GO’s player base also saw a sizable 10% increase. But this year’s increase is even bigger and is also positively affected by the good plater numbers from the latter half of 2022. CS:GO averaged more than 600 000 players from August until the end of the year, with each month seeing a peak player base of more than a million simultaneous players.
With the competitive CS:GO season promising big things, the number of active players will only increase.
