Counter-Strike: Global Offensive hits 1.8 million concurrent players

11 years after its release, Valve's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has hit a new high for concurrent players. 

Per SteamDB, the popular shooter reached 1.8 million players on Saturday, May 6. The game's previous record was 1.5 million back in March, but this new milestone now gives it Steam's second highest all-time concurrent peak behind the 3.25 million reached by PUBG: Battlegrounds in 2018. 

As of Monday, May 8, the game sports 1.35 million concurrent players. Global Offensive has consistently been big on Steam, and if it;s not the platform's most-played game overall, then it's usually one of Steam's best-selling games of the year. 

That the game's concurrent player count is rising isn't a coincidence. Valve intends to release Counter-Strike 2 in June, and it's intended as a free upgrade for Global Offensive. It's not clear what all will carry over between games, but it's a good incentive to play the current game now, even if it's just something simple as an in-game emblem. 

It may also be that players are trying to play as much of Global Offensive as possible if the game gets sunset following Counter-Strike 2's release. Valve has yet to fully explain what'll happen to the 2012 game once its sequel releases, and this year in partcular has taught us that online games can go away suddenly and quite easily.