It’s 2022 and Counter Strike: GO is Still Hot

It’s 2022, and you would think that with the plethora of amazing online games that have released in the last few years, that older titles like Counter Strike: GO might have fallen to the wayside. Released back in August of 2012 – that’s almost a decade ago, friends – Counter Strike: GO immediately resonated with fans, and quickly became one of the most popular eSports games on the planet. And that really hasn’t changed, although other titles have risen to prominence, before crashing back down to reality. Counter Strike: GO, however, seems to have invincibility power!

From reading through comments on Reddit, it has become very apparent that if you want to excel at first person shooter games, Counter Strike: GO is the best option to teach the vary skills needed to be competitive in almost any other game. Here is a particularly telling comment from zitandspit99 on Reddit:

“Adding to this, if you’re into FPS games and want to improve in general then CSGO is your ticket. I was a CSGO player for 3 years and I became noticeably better after playing. This game will teach you angle holding, pre firing, pre aiming, and will make you more comfortable with headshots, as well as making your mechanical aim better to. I now play Escape from Tarkov exclusively and I can win a good chunk of fights I’m in thanks to the knowledge I got from CSGO.”

Here, the poster credits this historic game as being key to his development as a player. As indicated, Counter Strike has helped with various key aspects of being good at a first person shooter, and that has translated to other games and titles. But there is something else keeping Counter Strike relevant almost a decade later, and that is due to eSports growth and folks bet on CS: GO. The popularity of Counter Strike tournaments translates into a lot of betting happening on the games themselves. And the prize pools for the players are huge. The bigger the prize pools, the more impressive the tournament, the bigger the winning potential for those betting as spectators. On the website the sheer number of competitions being planned for 2022 is absolutely mind boggling.

The PGL Major Antwerp tournament just wrapped up with a prize pool of 1,000,000.00! The IEM Dallas 2022 has just begun, and boasts a prize pool of 250,000.00. In fact, there are tournaments running every month from now until the end of the year, with the entire 2022 season boasting a massive 4.5+ million in prize money. If that doesn’t keep a game at the top of the heap, I’m not sure what will.

But let’s go back to those good old forums. We know why the game is so popular, between the huge eSports team and the ability to learn a lot of key skills, but what attracts new players? It seems that from most commenters, it’s the ease of entry.

While I would argue that most first person shooter games are fairly accessible, from someone who has played Counter: Strike GO in the past, it is more accessible than other games. Even online matchmaking is very balanced, keeping new players with new players, and veterans with veterans.

But it’s the way the mechanics are taught to you, the way you can ease yourself into more complex situation, that makes this such an approachable game. And as the gold standard for an online game – you cannot deny the success of a decade old titles still being relevant – it is getting recommended as a must play for those new to the first person shooter space.

Other games have been a flash in the pan, and have actually dwarfed Counter Strike: GO in player counts and prize money pots. But they don’t have the legs that Counter Strike does, nor the ability to keep something so old, so relevant. The team behind the game continues to make necessary updates, and are always looking to make improvements to better the experience. That being said, often times this is a pure example of, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”