Counter-Strike 2 was one of the most talked about games of 2023. It was slowly drip-fed to the community by Valve in a series of closed playtests before being released globally to a relatively positive reception. As the next generation of Counter-Strike, CS2 marked the entry of an all-new standard of esports-focused gaming, and it became the new competitive platform for the franchise.
Ultimately, the CS2 release date was on September 27, 2023.
This is when it was launched worldwide, with Valve taking Counter-Strike: Global Offensive offline once and for all, and instead pivoting to the brand-new game. It marked a monumental moment in the history of the series, with hundreds of thousands of players flooding the platform from the moment it went live on September 27, 2023.
From the moment Counter-Strike 2’s first tests were announced in March 2023, players started clambering back into the CSGO ecosystem. It was believed that elements like community standing or playtime would influence Valve and net them access to the beta testing period, but this wasn’t necessarily the case. Some players were leaving their accounts running for days at a time to earn enough playtime to qualify for a spot in the CS2 testing phase.
It was a staggering time to be a Counter-Strike fan. The announcement generated hype for the series like never before, with more than 1.5 million concurrent players finding their way into the game mere weeks after the follow-up title was revealed. When the game was finally released, the CS2 player count remained just as strong.
CSGO’s competitive scene saw a huge boost throughout the summer of 2023, with several top-tier CS tournaments picking up more viewers than ever before. As the year wore on, the eventual retirement of CSGO drew ever closer, and by October, the last tournament to be played on the decade-old game, the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown, was taking place.
CS2 was released on September 27, 2023, after more than ten years of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s dominance of the esports industry.
If you’ve played Counter-Strike games over the years, you’ll have probably heard about the community joke for ‘Valve Time’.
Valve, as a studio, has a record of releasing dates to the public that end up shifting massively. Sometimes as far as years off, like when Valve’s own Dota 2 was rumoured to release in 2011. It was later updated to be due at the start of 2012, before finally releasing in 2013! For long-time Counter-Strike veterans who remember the release of CSGO in 2013, the beta was delayed more than a month past its initial timeframe of early October.
Valve Time is a tricky thing to measure, but the wait for the CS2 release date felt like an especially long break before September 2023.
It turned out to be worth the wait, though. Since being the CS2 release date arrived on September 27, 2023, millions of players have found a comfortable new home in the game.
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