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Four years ago, Valve's free to play MOBA Dota 2 hit 1,295,114 concurrent players and today it's finally been beaten by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Why the sudden resurgence of CS:GO? Well, I've been following it along and noted a few times now about certain milestones both Steam and CS:GO have been hitting. Have a look at this previous article for a little timeline, it's absolutely crazy.

Looking over the numbers, currently at around 1,300,317 (SteamDB) I do believe this makes it Valve's most popular game when it comes to players online—ever.

You could certainly put it down to lots of people staying at home due to the Coronavirus. That's a fair point. However, I would say it's also partly due to Riot's upcoming FPS 'Valorant'. It looks a huge amount like CS:GO, seriously it's hard to find someone who says it doesn't look like it (they're right though), with some special abilities added in. There's been a lot of talk about this, and I've seen quite a lot of people talk about how they actually went back to CS:GO so I think that's actually playing a part too.

I must admit my surprise a little that Valve hasn't really tried to capitalize on the opportunity of it expanding again. Their recent Battle Pass with Operation Shattered Web was pretty well received (I enjoyed the co-op missions and a few Stars earned in it), so I was expecting another Battle Pass to be put out already since that finished on March 30.

You can find Counter-Strike: Global Offensive free to play on Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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5 comments

Koopacabras Apr 18, 2020
At what time zone are the graphs?? UTC? Eastern Time? 🤔
rustybroomhandle Apr 18, 2020
Ah yeah, Valorant, another game we likely will not ever be able to run with Proton due to it using very low-level anticheat.
Boldos Apr 18, 2020
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Quoting: rustybroomhandleAh yeah, Valorant, another game we likely will not ever be able to run with Proton due to it using very low-level anticheat.
Your mean like Ring-0 rootkit-level anticheat?
Well, I will not shed any tears for this one...

...unless one plays competitively, of course; that is a different scenario.
RFSharpe Apr 18, 2020
For me, CS:GO is one of the many reasons I will be forever loyal to Value. A great game that I play several times a week; although I do not, and likely will never, play competitively.

The cost of entry for this fantastic game: FREE

But, as we all know, Value makes lots of money off of CS:GO. Perhaps you are smarter than I, but I have spent hundreds of dollars on CS:GO skins. As illogical as it may sound, I KNOW that new Famas skin has been the reason my kill to death ratio is getting higher every game.

Give me a "Skin to Win" game any day... Someone else can play and pay for "Pay to Win"
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