Numbers show the CS:GO player base is dropping – A worrying sign?

A worrying trend might be popping up for the popular FPS game, as the player base of CS:GO seems to be shrinking in the past few months.

Looking a little deeper at the numbers (SteamCharts), we see a major decrease in the amount of average players happening starting from January 2021, which had an average of 743,209 players. Looking at June of 2021 however, we see that the number has dropped to 549,347 players on average, a drop of almost 200,00 average players. While there’s also a little less people playing at peak times, a drop this steep isn’t unusual during the summer months.

One of the biggest reasons behind the shrinking player base seems to be the introduction of the paid CS:GO Prime playmaking and the introduction of the unranked playlist, which entered CS:GO on June 4. Things may not be as dire as they look however, as the change did prompt a lot of cheaters to leave the game.

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With the esports scene of the game picking up again, it’ll remain to be seen if the numbers keep declining at this rate. As CS:GO is starting to face more and more competition from the likes of VALORANT, they might have to pull something out to turn things around again.

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