What is CS2? Latest Counter-Strike title, explained

Counter-Strike is one of the oldest and longest-running PC shooters on the market. Over the years, the former Half-Life mod has taken several forms and undergone several massive revamps—the latest of which is Counter-Strike 2, or CS2 for short.

Don't be fooled: This isn't the second edition of Counter-Strike that has been released in the franchise's near-30 year span. That said, the game changed massively with CS2's launch in 2023 and continues to grow with millions of players returning to play every day.

Here's a brief overview of CS2; how we got here, what CS2 did that changed the game, and where it's heading in the future.

CS2, or Counter-Strike 2, is the first major "release" of Counter-Strike after the long-running Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The sequel to CS:GO had been worked on for years, with Valve slowly porting the game we know and love to the updated Source 2 engine.

For over a decade, Counter-Strike ran on Valve's hearty but slowly-outdated Source engine. While Counter-Strike's sister title Dota 2 received it's port to Source 2 way back in 2015, the shooter's fans would need to wait a lot longer.

From the outside, the leap from CS:GO to CS2 didn't look all that groundbreaking. Apart from a few visual cues and a fresh main menu, the untrained fan probably wouldn't notice the difference. Oh how wrong they would be once they got in-game...

From a competitive standpoint, CS2 became almost an entirely new game on launch. Matches were shortened from 15 rounds per half to 12, in line with rival Riot Games shooter VALORANT. Graphical fidelity was massively improved with new physics, courtesy of the Source 2 engine, boosting gameplay consistency.

New volumetric smoke grenades filled gaps in geometry and could be interacted with via bullets and other pieces of utility. Maps received visual updates with focus on lighting and brighter hues. Source 2's engine also came with plenty of new tools for mapmakers and designers to work with, improving the quality and potential of community items.

Everything from sound to lighting, shadows, and the base UI was enhanced in CS2. Even the ranked competitive system copped a major overhaul, with the classic ranks replaced by a new game mode, Premier, complete with it's own rating system.

Valve touted the sequel update as "the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike's history," and it's hard to disagree—but it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows when CS2 arrived.

CS2 arrived on September 27, 2023. It launched as an update for CS:GO, which has been slowly phased out over time and only exists as a legacy branch as part of the CS2 download.

Months before its September launch, Valve announced CS2's "Limited Test" beta in March. Select accounts would receive access to the CS2 branch with limited maps and functionality. More and more players were granted entry to the test, which evolved with new features and maps to allow CS2 to be stress-tested.

The test opened to all legacy accounts (those who bought CS:GO prior to it's free-to-play release in 2018) in early September. Those without access wouldn't have to wait long to get into CS2 with it's official launch coming within the month.

CS2 arrived, but players weren't all that impressed. Much of the game's content, including community servers, Wingman, Danger Zone, Arms Race, and several classic maps weren't initially ported to the updated game.

Steam Workshop support also wasn't available, and Valve opted that, due to a lack of interest, macOS would not be supported in any way going forward. As a result, the community turned on the title—but as Valve has updated the game, much of the playerbase has returned with new concurrent records set in 2025.

Over time, some of these features did find their way into CS2, but many remain missing with no word from Valve about when they'd be ported over.

CS2 is available only on PC via Steam and can be downloaded from the Steam Store here.

For more CS2 news and guides, stay tuned to esports.gg!