Is CS:GO dying?
I see being asked, time and time again.
I’m not saying I have the answers.
But I’ll share my thoughts on this any way.
Let’s start with the stats over on the Steamcharts.
Here’s a graph I made earlier of them, tracking both average and peak viewing figures every
month since the game’s release.
The average playing numbers remain impressive, still above the levels that we’ve seen before
2017, minus a few months in early 2016 and December of 2015.
This actually suggests that CS:GO has been in a good place so far this year!
The peak viewing numbers, however, show a different story.
If you look at this past year, these numbers are certainly trending downwards, which I
suppose can give the impression of the community ‘dying’.
I hear it’s not doing so well on Twitch either after a few of the major streamers
switched to other games, but I don’t feel I’m in a position to talk much about that
platform.
But I can say that although the average number of players remains largely unaffected, something
is eating away at peak playing times!
It’s almost as though there’s another game that people are playing instead.
I WONDER WHAT THAT COULD BE.
HMM!
Looking at peak players across the whole of steam, we can perhaps see what’s going on.
We’re used to seeing CS:GO in at number 2 here, behind Dota.
But now it’s dropped to number 3, having been overtaken by Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds!
I’m not saying this is the sole reason for a drop in CS:GO’s peak player numbers.
But scrolling down my friends list, it’s clear that it’s played a part.
The game has been a runaway success.
All the more impressive that it’s still in early access, and will be receiving major
updates over the upcoming weeks and months!
And it deserves the success.
It’s a great idea that’s been brilliantly realised and will no doubt carve out a chunk
of the market for these reasons.
I have it myself and I play with friends.
It’s great to be able to play together, regardless of skill or ranks, and to have
a seemingly fair chance of doing well in the game.
And despite being stressful at times, overall it’s far less frustrating than a CS:GO match
can be.
That being said I don’t see how you can compare it to CS:GO.
You hear people moaning about Counter Strike for random chance and what-not, when PUBG
pretty much exists for that!
Random plane spawns, random drops in every house, random end zone you have to rush to…
it’s the appeal of the game!
It’s just a very different game to CS:GO, which is one of the least random games you
can find.
I don’t see Battlegrounds working as an esport.
The only way it competes with CS:GO in my opinion is for player numbers on steam.
Let’s not forget the age of both of these games, either- with CS:GO most players have
reached a level of skill that they find hard to push past, which I suspect is the cause
of a lot of the frustration.
Playerunknown Battlegrounds is still in its honeymoon stage.
The average skill level is low.
The mechanics are new and exciting and not that balanced or polished.
With a bit of effort it’s easy to get a one-up over the other players!
As such it's easy to play it, thinking that it doesn’t suffer from this same irritating
‘skill peak’ that CS:GO has, but I suspect that with time and as the playerbase matures
it’ll be subject to the same criticisms and frustrations.
And it’s a dangerous thing for me to say, what with how the game’s performing on the
steam charts right now, but… maybe the appeal of battle royale will eventually wear off.
So yeah, Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds is definitely a factor in this.
But I think it’s only part of the story.
Let’s return to CS:GO now.
Or more specifically, the Reddit page for it.
What I see are ever increasing numbers of posts about ESPORT stuff.
What pro players have said, what they’ve done in matches, the match outcomes and so
on.
It’s apparent that more and more CS:GO fans are watching matches rather than playing one
themselves!
It’s becoming like football, where anybody could play it in the field but many would
rather watch better players performing in a stadium.
I know that every person watching this will feel differently about this side of the game.
I mean, personally I follow the majors but beyond that I’ll probably look at the team
rankings once a month just to stay on top of things.
I think CS:GO is big enough to cater for all kinds of people, whether you want to play,
watch or make content for it.
Speaking of which: Operations.
These were things that appealed to players who needed a reason to boot up CS:GO.
Maybe a major update.
New maps.
Or simply a goal to ‘beat’ beyond the competitive ranking system.
It would make sense that these Operations would help to boost the peak viewing figures
by attracting casual players who otherwise would be playing something else.
And the gap between recent operations can’t have helped things.
OR COULD IT?
I added the operations onto this graph because I could.
And…
Hnng, it does kind of look like it helps CSGO’s success, but doesn’t explain the boom in
late 2016 or early 2017 at all.
Maybe by adding the date of Valve’s Cease and Desist against gambling sites, it will
explain the huge drop that occurred in mid 2016!
Nah not really.
Looks like CS:GO was dropping off before that point DESPITE being during an operation.
And lastly, the majors.
This can at least explain the peak in early 2017 and nicely highlights a lot of the jumps
in peak viewing numbers.
I guess I could try to include all of the major updates and map additions as well but…
can’t be bothered.
So here we are, with a lot of information at our fingertips.
What’s the reason for this dip, highlighted in green?
Would it have looked a lot worse had we not had the major in early 2017?
I’ll let you come to your own conclusions about this.
But as a Youtuber, I know that not releasing regular content for a while can seriously
damage your channel in the long-run.
Your videos stop being a regular part of viewers’ lives and they find something else to fill
that void, so even if you do start producing regular content again, the damage has already
been done.
So I would say that this ‘lull’ in peak viewership could be attributed to neglect
by Valve who perhaps lost motivation after the end of the growth and actual drop in viewing
figures during the Wildfire Operation, further compounded by other games competing for more
the viewerbase, such as Playerunknown Pugugugrounds.
And possibly Overwatch, which was released in May of 2016- which could kind of explain
the drop during Wildfire.
Yeah, actually that’s probably it.
Props to CS:GO’s playerbase for having the average numbers drop so little!
But however you look at it, it’s becoming increasingly evident that CS:GO has reached
another stage of its life.
It’s a mature game now, with a hardened, seasoned audience.
A lot of you were excited to climb up the ranks, but inevitably that climb has to stop
somewhere and with it, so does the motivation to go further.
I still believe new people can and will get into the game, but it’ll be harder to get
into it PROPERLY than it was, say, 3 years ago.
We seemingly want major changes to the game but then complain when the new operation,
map or weapon balance isn’t what we wanted.
What exactly IS it that you want?
What would suddenly rekindle your love for the game that hasn’t already been done?
Communities love to jump on the bandwagon for this and that, it’s usually something
that needs improving, now most stuff has been fixed it’s whether the game’s dying.
You guys tell me!
It won’t die if you all keep playing it.
Maybe, rather than blaming Valve for being lazy, or content creators for running out
of ideas, you should instead look at the game and decide if you find everything about CS:GO
boring because you’re bored of it yourselves.
Playerunknown- Battlegrounds- I don’t know what to call it…
PUBG may be the breath of fresh air that a lot of CS:GO players were looking for.
Overexposure to something is a great way to get people to hate it and perhaps this has
happened to you with CS:GO.
I don’t think that CS:GO is dying.
The player numbers show that.
But I think it’s become an unhealthy obsession and a thing to hate on for too much of the
community and that perhaps a different game could be what so many players need right now.
You don’t have to just play ONE game.
It’s probably better that you don’t.
CS:GO is an extremely successful first person shooter that’s gone well beyond being just
a competitive online game.
In its current state it’s almost an entirely different game from the one we had in 2012.
I think you could appreciate this more as an outsider who’s only just stumbled upon
it.
As a community I think we get too bogged down with the negatives.
There’s something appealing about feeling self pity or hatred for something and the
internet has a bad habit of encouraging these kinds of circlejerks.
CS:GO has already endured years of complaints, scandals and dank memes.
Truth is, I think we’re getting nostalgic.
Unfairly comparing our current experience with when we originally played CS:GO.
When we climbed the ranks for the first time, tangibly feeling that we were improving!
Or that time when a new update transformed the game in a noticeable way, because of how
bad it had been before.
The game in its current state is the best it’s been.
And it can probably get better still.
But these improvements probably won’t feel like anything compared to what we’ve already
had.
We always want more.
We want progress and change.
I do, too.
As a youtuber, it’s not enough that hundreds of people are subscribing to me a day BECAUSE
I USED TO BE GROWING FASTER.
Back when CS:GO was.
This slowed growth does have an impact on my mood and enthusiasm.
I’m not going to lie.
For years now I’ve been told by a lot of you guys that you don’t play the game anymore,
but that you still enjoy watching my videos.
Thank you!
If that’s the case then you might like 2kliksphilip, who dabbles with a variety of different games
and subjects, rather than being stuck analysing CS:GO every video.
Here are a few of his videos of his to get you started.