To this day, Counter-Strike remains one of the most enduring FPS series ever made. Beginning life as a mod for the original Half-Life, Counter-Strike has evolved through various iterations with the most recent being CS2.
Although the official release date for the original game is usually considered to be November 1st, 2000, Counter-Strike’s birthday is actually even earlier than that. We’re going to be looking at when Counter-Strike’s anniversary is, as well as what Valve may have planned for the upcoming 25th anniversary celebrations.
Credit: Daniel Morris
It’s true that the original Counter-Strike got a full release on November 1st, 2000. But did you know that the beta for Counter-Strike was released on June 19th, 1999, making this the official birthday of CS.
The game would spend over a year in this beta stage before making its way to full release. Most players don’t know about the original Counter-Strike birthday, but it’s when Valve tends to celebrate the anniversary.
Credit: Valve
The June 19th, 1999 birthday means that Counter-Strike is set to celebrate its 25th anniversary extremely soon. Valve doesn’t tend to announce updates in advance, but for such a big occasion, it’s safe to expect something is in the works. After all, Valve celebrated Counter-Strike’s 20th birthday back in 2019 with a workshop event, inviting creators to create skins and stickers for the game.
This time around, we expect Valve could go a little bigger. We’re thinking a new CS Operation. The most recent CS Operation was Operation Riptide, which was released back in September 2021. That’s a long wait! Since the launch of CS2 back in September 2023, there has been no hint of a new Operation, and we think the 25th anniversary celebrations would be the perfect time to make it happen. This is purely speculation on our part, but it would be a great way to celebrate a huge Counter-Strike birthday milestone.
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