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A few days ago, the highly anticipated Counter Strike 2 (1.0) landed via Steam for PC players. Presenting itself as the “ultimate” CS experience, the game aims to satisfy its fans with optimized operation, but also to meet the expectations of esports fans. The players were there from the launch of the game and production broke impressive recordsto the delight of Valve!
Counter Strike 2, a total success!
The launch of the game is a total success for Valve, which even had to review the capacities of its servers due to a massive influx of players. The free-to-play model appears to have worked for CS2, which recorded a peak of players at 1.4 million upon its release. With such a figure, the game surpasses all recent blockbuster releases, including Baldur’s Gate 3 (peak at around 900,000 concurrent players).
Version 1.0 of Counter Strike 2 is a real hit, and has continued to make an impact on Steam users! On social networks, players were quick to share their enthusiasm, as well as their hours of play. On this side, the figures are also impressive and some fans already have hundreds of hours on their clock!
1 million dollars per minute for Valve?
No worries about the price: while Counter Strike Global Offensive was paid for when it was released, CS2 was released free-to-play. But then, how do Valve teams make money? It was via X (formerly Twitter) that Jake Lucky, videographer specializing in video games, shared his theory. According to him, Counter Strike 2 would have reported 40 million dollars in 40 minutes after its official launch, or 1 million dollars per minute. It is based on the stream of xQc, who himself opened dozens of crates live.
It’s important to note that this figure has not yet been confirmed by Valve teams, and was calculated via loot crate sales. This is one of the most popular systems in the license, which allows players to open crates for keys in order to obtain (cosmetic) skins for weapons. Some skins can then sell for staggering prices on player markets. Knife cosmetics have sometimes sold for thousands of dollars. We therefore understand the enthusiasm of users for this system!
As of now, Counter Strike 2 continues to be in full swing and every day Steam is recording colossal numbers. One thing is certain, players are not done with Valve’s production, and we don’t worry about the company’s income! Of course, loot crates aren’t the only source of profit for CS2 developers, and Jake Lucky’s data is unlikely to be completely accurate. Still, they give us an idea of the numbers the company made right out of production.