Counter-Strike 2 Is Now Officially Launched On Steam, Over 1 Million Concurrent Players

gameranx.com:

Valve has officially launched Counter-Strike 2.

Valve shares this description of the game on its official Steam page:

“For over two decades, Counter-Strike has offered an elite competitive experience, one shaped by millions of players from across the globe. And now the next chapter in the CS story is about to begin. This is Counter-Strike 2.

A free upgrade to CS:GO, Counter-Strike 2 marks the largest technical leap in Counter-Strike’s history. Built on the Source 2 engine, Counter-Strike 2 is modernized with realistic physically-based rendering, state of the art networking, and upgraded Community Workshop tools.

In addition to the classic objective-focused gameplay that Counter-Strike pioneered in 1999, Counter-Strike 2 features:

    All-new CS Ratings with the updated Premier mode

    Global and Regional leaderboards

    Upgraded and overhauled maps

    Game-changing dynamic smoke grenades

    Tick-rate-independent gameplay

    Redesigned visual effects and audio

    All items from CS:GO moving forward to CS2”

Alongside this launch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has been delisted from Steam. Valve describes as a free update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on their website, though some fans may disagree. Kawlum points out on Twitter that Valve did not wait until all Counter-Strike: Global Offensive legacy content was carried over to Counter-Strike 2 before they launched the latter game.

This is a genuine issue because part of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive‘s popularity stems from the hundreds of transactions that fans had in the game being relevant and usable in the game for years and years. That content adds up to thousands of dollars for many players.

Now, part of the reason Valve did this may be also directly