Just a few weeks ago, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive surpassed its all-time concurrent player count, hitting a peak of 876,575 players at once. This appears to have been the start of a snowball effect, as the record has now been broken again. 

CS:GO's previous peak player count clocked in at over 850,000 players, which was set back in April 2016. As CS:GO competitive tournaments got underway in February, that record was beaten, bumping up the record to over 876,000 players. Finally, over this past weekend, over 924,000 players were logged in to CS:GO at once.

Interestingly, all of these peak player numbers were set some time before, or quite some time after CS:GO switched to the free to play model. Despite removing the financial barrier to entry, CS:GO did not surpass 2016 peak player numbers when it became free in 2018.

What makes this all the more peculiar is that there is no immediate reason for the most recent surge in players. However, it could come down to the game's popularity in China, especially with the Coronavirus outbreak keeping more people in-doors.

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KitGuru Says: I've been on a Rainbow Six Siege binge recently but I'll always have a soft spot for CS:GO. Have many of you been playing Counter-Strike recently? 

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