Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is back: 3 years after it was muscled out by Counter-Strike 2, CS:GO has its own Steam page again and has powered its way back onto Steam's most-played chart

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is back: 3 years after it was muscled out by Counter-Strike 2, CS:GO has its own Steam page again and has powered its way back onto Steam’s most-played chart | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these FPS It’s taken 2 decades to appear, but this fan-made spiritual successor to Command & Conquer: Renegade has finally hit 1.0: ’12 years of beta testing has led us to this’ MOBA After deciding to make a MOBA, Quantic Dream also decides to release it at the same time as the Marathon server slam, the first Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest, and the Steam Next Fest Games The best free games on Steam Platforms Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 2, 2026) FPS Unreal Tournament 2004 is now available for free thanks to its fan community, and they’ve even updated the game for modern PCs: ‘This is the first public patch for Unreal Tournament 2004 in over 20 years’ FPS The best FPS games on PC FPS Highguard’s failure is emblematic of something that has tormented videogame investors for years now: past live service hits do not equal future live service hits FPS Highguard didn’t flop FPS Overwatch’s second weekend of Conquest ‘had a higher daily player count’ than its opening weekend as Blizzard’s FPS gains momentum Platforms Five new Steam games you probably missed (February 23, 2026) FPS Highguard director shares stats and thoughts on the game’s failure, denies conspiracy theories about where it all went wrong: ‘Nobody will know the true story of the studio or game’ FPS Microsoft nukes popular Halo 3 mod for Counter-Strike 2 from orbit: ‘It was fun while it lasted’ FPS Overwatch’s grand revamp event is a suffocating blip in an otherwise successful return to form FPS ‘We don’t need [player counts] to be super huge in order to be successful’: Highguard devs respond to posters declaring it dead on arrival Gaming Industry New Blood CEO Dave Oshry says he’s ‘always loved GOG’ but ‘they need enough people to give a s**t, or how long are they even going to be around’ PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!Resident EvilArc RaidersBest PC gearGame Quizzes Games FPS Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is back: 3 years after it was muscled out by Counter-Strike 2, CS:GO has its own Steam page again and has powered its way back onto Steam’s most-played chart News By Andy Chalk published 4 March 2026 CS:GO was subsumed into Counter-Strike 2 a few years ago, but now it has its own Steam page again. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Valve) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Signup + Every Thursday GTA 6 O’clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O’clock experts. Signup + Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what’s on the horizon. Signup + Every Thursday The Setup Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more. Signup + Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo’s new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play. Signup + Every Saturday The Watchlist Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter I have no idea what to make of this, but more than two years after it was folded into Counter-Strike 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is back on Steam.CS:GO was never fully scrubbed out of existence: Committed diehards could continue accessing the OG GO through a CS2 beta build, unceremoniously named “csgo_demo_viewer.” Online matchmaking was disabled, though, so play was restricted to matches with bots.Now, for some reason, CS:GO has its own standalone Steam page again, although it’s somewhat limited too. It’s unlisted, meaning it won’t appear in Steam searches. (Luckily for you, the direct link is right there, and web searches will get you there too.) There’s also still no matchmaking, which is not convenient, but you can still do it old-school through Steam’s server browser by manually joining community servers—and yes, there are still plenty of them up and running. Related articles Overwatch creeps past Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty’s concurrent players on Steam, hitting its biggest peak in years Overwatch 2 drops the 2 and goes back to being Overwatch as Blizzard launches its biggest update ever next week: ‘We want to gain players’ confidence, we want them to have trust in the game’ Thousands of players flood into Team Fortress 2 Classified, the free ‘TF2 Classic’ mod that just launched on Steam Why CS:GO has suddenly been broken out again is anyone’s guess right now, but there’s some real excitement about the development on the Global Offensive subreddit. Why would Valve go to this trouble, the thinking goes, unless it was planning to do something more with it down the road? It’s not as though Valve needs to rescue CS2, which remains very firmly atop Steam’s most-played chart.It’s arguable that this isn’t just returni