CS 2 record on Steam. Valve's new game spotted by dataminers?
CS 2 players are complaining, but they are still crowding Valve's shooter, which may be testing some new, unknown title.
Counter-Strike 2 attracted a record number of players, although fewer than in the best times of CS:GO.
The past weekend turned out to be successful for many games. The new threat in Helldivers 2 attracted crowds of freedom defenders to the planet Fenrir III, and in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, over 200 thousand Steam users had fun (although they didn't manage to break the record from a week ago).
CS 2 record behind CS:GO
However, the results of these and other games are nothing compared to the new record of the "second" CS, in which over 1.74 million players played yesterday. This is still over 70,000 less than the "peak" of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive from almost two years ago, but it's still the second-best result in the brand's history.
CS 2 is still an insanely popular title. The game's record isn't even half of the absurd "peak" of PUBG, and the last year brought two titles that significantly surpassed the CS record from May 2023.
However, Counter-Strike is almost always at the top of the list of the most popular games on the Valve platform. With a considerable lead: at the time this text was published, nearly 900,000 people were playing CS 2 - a number that the next two titles on the podium don't even approach, even when combined. Even if you add users playing Marvel Rivals (currently in 4th position), Counter-Strike 2 still has significantly more players.
Another issue is that with the popularity of CS 2, there are constant complaints from players who demand that Valve address the bugs and cheaters.
Not just Deadlock?
However, it wasn't the "record" of CS that aroused the greatest interest of players, or at least some of them. An unidentified game, allegedly from Valve, was spotted in the Steam database.
The title was supposed to appear for the first time in the files in January 2025, and since then the app has been updated multiple times (last time on February 15th). Interestingly, this unknown game has its own server. A connection with the latest known Valve game was also quickly ruled out. The app is more likely related to the title that was noticed at the beginning of the previous month.
Of course, gamers immediately started throwing out their suggestions about what this mysterious item could be. Some Valve fans associate this with an intriguing post by actor Mike Shapiro, which of course "confirms" (according to some fans) Half-Life 3. However, data miners urge to curb the enthusiasm.
There isn't even complete certainty that this is a Valve game, much less which one it might be. It could be HLX (the codename for the new Half-Life), it could be its network deathmatch mode, it could even be a trifle similar to Aperture Desk Job. Or, as one of the data miners points out, it could be one big "nothing."
Many fans are betting on this last option, who, even after the recent reports, are simply fed up with all the "confirmed" information about the imminent announcement of Half-Life 3.
