One of Steam's most incredible records has been broken, as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive overtook Dota 2 for the highest concurrent players of all time. As of Saturday, April 18, the new record stands at an astonishing 1,305,000 concurrent players, breaking the previous record for the second day in a row. Dota 2's record had been just short of 1.3 million concurrent players. It wouldn't be surprising if Counter-Strike: Global Offensive continued to stretch the record higher week to week going forward.
The reason for the sudden surge in popularity for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is simple, as most people likely already understand. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to strict stay-at-home restrictions across the world, and many are taking the opportunity to social distance online and play some competitive online games.
COVID-19 isn't the only reason for the surge, however. Part of the rest of the equation comes from a new patch for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This helped push the game over the edge for the record, but really only increased over player account a small bit. More importantly, funnily enough, is excitement for the Riot Games Counter-Strike like shooter Valorant. Valorant is currently in closed beta, so very few people can actually play it, and it's no surprise that a lot of those players are returning to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in the meantime.
The Dota 2 record that Counter-Strike beat has stood since March 2016, during the peak of Dota 2 hype. March 2016 had a couple of big events for Dota 2. First, the Dota 2 Shanghai Majors tournament began and ended. The Chinese tournament was incredibly popular. The second was Dota 2's Spring Cleaning 2016 update, which massively polished assorted aspects of the game.
It's unlikely that Dota 2 will be able to retake its record at this point given the game's steady decline in players, but anything is possible. As for what other games might be able to take the record, it's hard to imagine. The record that Counter-Strike set is incredible. The game that beats it likely doesn't exist yet.
It's crazy to think an 8-year old game like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive could have such a massive resurgence, as even Valve's battle royale mode for Counter-Strike didn't lead to too big of a surge in players. But the COVID-19 pandemic has definitely redefined normal and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is doing its part to give people at home some amount of comfort. A lot of people, at that.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is available now on PC.