Here’s a record for you: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has cracked the 1 million concurrent players mark for the first time since it released in 2012. Eight years of steady rises and falls, dips and upticks, have made CS:GO the game that absolutely, positively will not die. In fact, it seems clear at this point that CS:GO will only become more powerful. At about 14:20 GMT today CS:GO reached a peak of 1,007,062 players, beating its previous records by some 75,000 players. Valve seemed quite chuffed:
Thanks a million.
— CS:GO (@CSGO) March 14, 2020
Just earlier this year CS:GO took the top spot from Dota 2 on Steam and has been barreling ahead ever since. You could say it’s going, uh, full steam. Last month CS:GO broke its concurrent record twice in just a few days. It’s not coincidence that these records come during peak evening gaming hours in the densely populated regions of the Chinese time zone, as millions of people are quarantined—or at least avoiding going out—due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
