Counter Strike: Global Offensive remains the most popular game on Steam by a wide margin heading into February 2023.
The data analysts at Casinos En Ligne have crunched the numbers from SteamCharts to reveal some key gaming trends from January.
Not only did CS:GO have the most average players, but it was also the most played game on Steam by a wide margin.
Over the last 30 days, CS:GO was played for 526.48 million hours, 71.5 percent more than Dota 2, the next most popular game on the platform. It also peaked at 1.2 million concurrent players last month, 57 percent higher than Dota 2, which still peaked at an impressive 764,490 players in January 2023.
Meanwhile, Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II | Warzone™ 2.0 slid down the list of most popular games on Steam, falling from No. 6 to No. 7 after another lackluster month. The video game title has brought back a popular mode and added a new map in February after losing more than half of its players since November 2022..
Check out the highlights from the data
- Counter Strike: Global Offensive Is Most Popular Game on Steam
- CS:GO Was Played 71.5% More Than Next Most Popular Game (DOTA 2)
- CS:GO Peaks At 1.2M Players in January 2023
- Call of Duty: Warzone 2 Has Lost 54% of Its Players Since November 2022
Counter Strike: Global Offensive Is Most Popular Game on Steam
In January 2023, CS:GO averaged 520,775 concurrent players, 120 percent more than Dota 2, which was next on the list with 349,332 players.
Overall, the top two games on the list had more players (756,590) than the other eight in the top 10 combined (678,369).
Lost Ark (150,261), PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS (113,963), and Apex Legends (104,965) were the only other games averaging more than 100,000 concurrent players.
Check out the list of the top-10 most popular games on Steam, ranked by current players.
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive — 682,290 players
- Dota 2 — 349,332 players
- Lost Ark — 150,261 players
- PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS — 113,963 players
- Apex Legends — 104,965 players
- Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II | Warzone™ 2.0 — 84,292 players
- Destiny 2 — 78,220 players
- Grand Theft Auto V — 77,248 players
- Team Fortress 2 — 77,005 players
- Rust — 71,217 players
CS:GO Was Played 71.5% More Than Next Most Popular Game (DOTA 2)
Steam players are spending more time on CS:GO than any other game.
In fact, CS:GO was played 71.5 percent more than Dota 2, the next most popular game on the platform. Steam players have logged 526.48 million hours on CS:GO over the last 30 days compared to 304 million on Dota 2.
Despite having fewer players, both PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS (144.97M) and Apex Legends (143.87M) finished with more hours played than Lost Ark (115.3M).
Meanwhile, Call of Duty: Warzone™ 2.0 continued its slide, finishing the month of January with only 72 million hours played, good for seventh on the list.
Here are the titles that gamers on Steam are spending the most time playing.
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive — 526.48M hours
- Dota 2 — 304.21M hours
- PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS — 144.97M hours
- Apex Legends — 143.87M hours
- Lost Ark — 115.32M hours
- Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II | Warzone™ 2.0 — 72.18M hours
- Grand Theft Auto V — 78.81M hours
- Rust — 68.05M hours
- Team Fortress 2 — 66.13M hours
- Wallpaper Engine — 57.29M hours
CS:GO Peaks At 1.2M Players in January 2023
CS:GO’s dominance in the esports space continued into the first month of 2023.
In January 2023, CS:GO had the most number of players on at once, peaking at 1.2 million over the last 30 days.
Again, that’s 57 percent more than the next-highest game on Steam.
Dota 2 (764,490), PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS (452,078), and Apex Legends (413,670) were next on the list of games with the most peak players while Lost Ark (333,008) rounded out the top five.
Check out the most popular Steam games ranked by peak players.
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive — 1,199,684
- Dota 2 — 764,490
- PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS — 447,030
- Apex Legends — 413,670
- Lost Ark — 333,008
- Rust — 176,710
- Grand Theft Auto V — 176,528
- Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II | Warzone™ 2.0 — 163,682
- Wallpaper Engine — 134,459
- Team Fortress 2 — 130,315
Call of Duty: Warzone 2 Has Lost 54% of Its Players Since November 2022
If it feels like less people have been playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 lately.
Well, that’s because there has been.
Previously No. 6 on the list, Call of Duty fell one spot to No. 7 after a lackluster January.
The number of Call of Duty players has dropped for consecutive months, as the game has lost more than 50 percent of its players since November 2022.
To counteract the downturn in players, the video game publisher has introduced a new map, Ashika Island, for the month of February.
Call of Duty also hopes to attract players by bringing back one of its most popular modes. Resurgence mode will return with the start of Season 2 on February 15.
Known for fast-paced action, Resurgence mode was a hit with fans of the original Warzone and could be what the title needs to inject some new life into the sequel.
