Players who like online first-person shooters have had a bit of a boon with the release of a number of new titles, but a classic still reigns supreme. It’s been an interesting last couple of months with the arrival of new online-based combat games, including indie-made ARC Raiders, which has managed some fairly epic-sized player counts. This past weekend, it topped over 418,000 (Sunday nights seemed to be its recurring time to join in), Battlefield 6, which has broken franchise records, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. While each game has its own design and identity, be it as an extraction, tactical team-based, or all-out combat, there’s another that manages to pull in more players than all three combined: Counter-Strike 2.
According to the latest counts on SteamDB, Counter-Strike 2 had nearly 1.5 million players join in on the same night as Arc Raiders latest peak, with Battlefield 6 trailing at 244,482 and Call of Duty at 83,568 (Steam includes counts for Black Ops 6, 7, and Warzone). Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty’s numbers could actually be significantly higher, but neither Microsoft nor Sony has released numbers from their platforms.
It’s only been two years since the successor to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was released, which offers updated visuals and improved game mechanics with its Source 2 Engine. For whatever reason, 2025 has been a strong year for the fifth entry in the franchise.
For now, it doesn’t look like any slowing down for CS2, although it has begun wrapping things up for this year with the first stage, The Starladd Budapest Major 2025, having begun on November 24. Meanwhile, those looking for online combat elsewhere continue to have new choices with the above titles as they each roll out new content regularly into 2026, so gear up and gather your crew to tackle new maps and rivals.