CS2 loses players for eight months in a row, its worst streak ever

Counter-Strike 2 keeps losing players. According to Steam Charts data compiled by timesaver.gg, the game closed October with an average of 797,324 concurrent players, around 8,300 fewer than in September, a 1.03% drop.

An unprecedented streak

The figure itself isn't dramatic; in fact, it's the smallest drop of the eight. What stands out is the trend: CS2 has now declined for eight consecutive months, from March to October, the longest losing run Steam Charts has recorded for the game. The previous one lasted six months, from February to July 2021, still in the CS:GO era.

The numbers

October's average is 15.9% lower than October 2025, which was around 948,000 players, and 23.3% below March 2025, which topped a million. It's also the lowest monthly average since February 2024.

The month's peak came on Saturday 10 October, with 1,402,441 concurrent players, 3.3% below September's high.

Context

October's decline follows the late-September update, the biggest of the year, which brought the Rush mode, pets and numerous gameplay changes. October's drop also happens to be the mildest of the streak, although there's no data to attribute that to the update.

Nor is there any official explanation for the decline. The community has spent months pointing to problems such as cheaters and bot farms in casual modes. It's also worth remembering that these figures count concurrent connections, not unique players, so ban waves against bot accounts can also affect the count.

Even so, CS2 remains one of the most-played games on Steam, with close to 800,000 people online on average at any given moment.

Source: Steam Charts, timesaver.gg.