If you have stopped playing CSGO and want to start playing again, or if you are interested in starting for the first time, you have probably heard some people say that the game is dead and wonder if it is worth playing.

While everyone can agree that it isn’t the same game it used to be, how can we decide whether it is officially dead or not?

In this article, I will cover the past, present, and future of CSGO to get a full picture of how much it has left in the tank (if any).

When It All Began

A sniper about to wreck some kids in CSGO

When CSGO was released in 2012, it was generally well received and established itself as a game that was made to stay prominent for the long term. As the player base grew, the game received steady updates such as skins, music packs, stickers, maps, and operations to keep it fresh and relevant.

The game was certainly not dead on arrival. There were flaws and room for improvements and additions, but the highly anticipated release immediately sold well and had a constant increase in players for approximately four years—until 2016.

Current State of CSGO

After all these years, is CSGO still relevant today? In terms of player count, it remains one of the top-played games on Steam at 654,000 peak players, and there hasn’t been any major difference since its highest point in late 2015 and early 2016.

Esports

The hype for esports is real

Esports remains alive and well within the CSGO community with more teams and tournaments than ever before. In fact, as I type this, The IEM Katowice Major Championship is underway with a prize pool of $1,000,000.

How does CSGO make money?

From the perspective of commercial success, we can certainly assume CSGO is on the downslope. However it has only decreased slightly, considering it has switched to a free-to-play model with a $14.99 price tag for prime status, which will hopefully separate hackers from serious players. Regardless of profit from game sales, nobody can deny the fact that Valve still rakes in at the very least a million dollars a day from fees on skins, stickers, sprays, and cases on the Steam Marketplace in addition to the sale of keys and operation passes.

Will the game die anytime soon?

If you fall under the category of gamers who believe that the game is not dead, the question for you becomes, “When it will die if not now?” For some, the switch to free-to-play could signal the beginning of the end, but with all the other factors discussed here, it’s unclear whether it will be years or months until it starts the process of winding down.

Taken down by the competition?

Another avenue of downfall for CSGO could be obsolescence because of newer and better games. To ponder this, let’s look at some big competitors.

1. Battlefield V- Even though the Battlefield series joins CSGO as one of the most prominent names in the FPS world, its own issues could bring itself down before it dislodges Counter Strike’s player base.

2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4- Call of Duty has had a slightly longer but slower downward trend when compared to Battlefield but still doesn’t seem to be too much of a threat.

3. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege- This game is much closer in gameplay to CSGO and closer to being a threat, but as it was released in late 2015, its time window to dethroning Counter Strike seems to have passed.

4. Overwatch- Overwatch is similar to CSGO in the sense that it is a competitive shooter, but there are more than enough differences to keep their bases separated.

5. Due Process- This game that you might not have heard of before is an upcoming tactical 5v5 shooter like CSGO and Rainbow Six Siege. However, it is based in a procedurally generated low-poly environment. This game has stayed mainly under the radar, but keep your eyes peeled for how it will affect CSGO when it gets released.

Conclusion

All in all, CSGO seems to have more life to live. It remains a cash cow for Valve and holds a heartfelt place in many Steam libraries, mine included. The expansive esports circuit and relative lack of competition keeps CSGO rooted in our minds and contributes to its longevity. If its death is inevitable, only time will tell the story of its demise.