Popular esports title Counter-Strike 2, developed by Valve, has recently reached a new all-time record of concurrent players active on Steam.
With a number of high-tier tournaments being held this year, 2025 is also shaping up to be one of the biggest esports seasons for the tactical first-person shooter.
According to Steam DB charts, Counter-Strike 2 reached an all-time peak of 1.86m concurrent players on April 12th, 2025.
Before this, its highest peak in the past three months was on March 15th, 2025 when it reached 1.82m concurrent players.
Counter-Strike 2’s Boom And Esports Popularity
Whilst not the sole factor contributing to CS2’s player activity, March and April’s figures coincide with several top-tier tournaments being held.
From April 6th-13th, 2025, PGL Bucharest 2025 took place with 16 teams, such as FaZe Clan and Team Falcons, competing for the lion’s share of its $625,000 (~£473,000) prize pool. In the end, Team Falcons defeated G2 in the grand finals.
Before that was the BLAST Open Spring 2025 that ran from March 19th-30th, 2025 – an event that concluded with over 850,000 peak viewers. With $400,000 (~£303,000) of total prize money on the line, 16 of the highest-ranking teams on VRS Global competed in both the Group Stage and Playoffs.
The past month saw a lot of top-tier tournaments back to back, many of which saw high viewership numbers. With such an active and popular competitive scene, perhaps some viewers may have felt encouraged to hop back onto Counter-Strike 2.
