With VALORANT breathing down its neck, CS:GO has released some major updates to improve the game.
For the last few years, CS:GO has been the undisputed round-based shooter, with player numbers growing exponentially. After starting out as a paid game, it is now free and continues to dominate the most-played lists. Eight years after its initial release, it’s still attracting players and, thanks to the lockdown, is even breaking records. Over the last couple of months, CS:GO has been reaching new milestones, first breaking the 1 million concurrent players barrier in March. It’s now hit the all-time highest concurrent players record with 1.3 million and is maintaining an average user count of 500,000 players at any one time.
Despite the huge popularity of CS:GO, there is a new threat on the horizon called VALORANT. The new game from Riot Games is currently in closed beta testing and is already setting records of its own. According to The Motley Fool, it managed to achieve 34 million hours worth of streaming views on Twitch in a single day. It also managed to reach 1.7 million concurrent viewers. Riot Games has succeeded in creating unprecedented hype for their new game and obviously has CS:GO in their sights as a direct rival.
Many former CS:GO pros like Tyson “Tenz” Ngo, Braxton “Brax” Pierce, and Keven “AZK” Larivière have already switched to VALORANT and it looks like many more will be joining the party in the future. Despite recent successes, Valve has taken notice and decided to give CS:GO major updates to balance the game and keep it competitive. They have also tweaked the maps and removed some bugs.
The first recent update involved nerfing the terrorist-exclusive Krieg 553 rifle. It had become the dominant rifle in the game due to being overpowered and was given both a fire-rate reduction and an accuracy reduction. The AUG was also updated to be more accurate when standing, but less accurate with a scope. The last rifle to receive an update is the M4A1-s, which was reduced in price by $200 to make it a more viable option.
The famous Deagle was given increased accuracy and it can now be used when jumping or when landing from a jump. Considered to be underpowered until now, the PP-Bizon and Tec-9 were also upgraded. The PP-Bizon now has increased armor penetration and the Tec-9 has better accuracy.
The second update allows players to see the crosshairs of players they are observing and also the ability to copy the crosshairs of other players. Valve has also made updates to many of the maps including Train, Anubis, Jungle, Vertigo, and Chlorine. Seven new music kits have also been added.
The impending release of VALORANT may have also accelerated Valve’s plans to move CS:GO onto the new Source 2 game engine. The rumors of the update have been going on for a couple of years but this year, Tyler McVicker, the owner of Valve News Network stated that the engine could be coming in a couple of months. Time will tell if he’s telling the truth, but there’s no doubt that the aging CS:GO could do with the update.
VALORANT may or may not take CS:GO’s crown, but at least Valve is taking action to improve their game. Either way, it’s the players who’ll benefit the most by having more games to choose from.
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