'CS:GO' Shatters Records With 1.4 Million Concurrent Players Amid Rumors Of An Upcoming 'Counter-Strike 2'

“Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,” the 2012 multiplayer tactical first-person shooter developed by Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment, has broken the record of concurrent players for the second time in two consecutive months.

The fourth game in the Counter-Strike series hit its all-time high of 1,420,183 people playing simultaneously this past weekend, just a month after it reached its previous record of 1,320,219 concurrent players on Feb.11.

See also: The 5 Most Viewed FPS Games On Twitch In 2022: 'Valorant' And 'CS: GO' Reign Supreme

“Thank you to our 1.4M Twitter followers for organizing and playing CS:GO concurrently today,” CS:GO’s official Twitter account celebrated on March, 11.

Thank you to our 1.4M Twitter followers for organizing and playing CS:GO concurrently today.

— CS:GO (@CSGO) March 11, 2023

“CS:GO” continues to be Steam’s most-played game, with Valve’s “Dota 2” following in second place and Electronic Arts Inc's EA "Apex Legends" in third place.

This record could be attributed to recent reports that suggest that a new version of “CS:GO” titled “Counter-Strike 2” could be released soon, according to Euro Gamer.

Although Valve, Steam, or any other sources have yet to confirm this, it is worth noting that a recent NVIDIA leak revealed the existence of executable files called "cs2" and "csgo2." If these reports are accurate, a beta version could be launched later this month.

Moreover, according to Insider Gaming, Richard Lewis, a highly regarded eSports journalist, tournament host, caster, and analyst within the Counter-Strike community, has confirmed that Counter-Strike 2 is in development, citing his sources.

“The new version is almost certainly set to be released under the working title Counter-Strike 2 and the tentative release date for the beta is in this month of March with April 1st at the outside,” Lewis said.

Next: How The World's Biggest Counter-Strike Tournament Broke All Audience Records, And Why The Whole Planet Loves This Game

Image credits: Courtesy of Valve