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Counter-Strike: Global Offensive stands out as one of the great success stories the video gaming industry has ever seen. It has now more than seven years old and it remains hugely popular this day, which is pretty remarkable when you consider how quickly most games are discarded. These are the main reasons for its ongoing success:
A Glorious Heritage
Counter-Strike was initially released as a mod for first-person shooter Half-Life in 1999. It received rave reviews and players loved the premise, which sees one team take on the role of the terrorists and the other team play as the counter-terrorists. The idea is to wipe out the opponents while completing a secondary objective, like planting a bomb or saving hostages.
It exceeded all expectations, as it quickly shifted a quarter of a million copies, and that inspired Valve to port it to the Xbox. A sequel called Counter-Strike: Condition Zero followed in 2004 and then Counter-Strike: Source hit shelves later that year.
Fans of the series had to wait eight years for the next instalment, so they were giddy with excitement by the time CS: GO was released. It impressed the existing community and pulled in legions of new fans, ensuring it shot to the top of the Steam charts and remained there for a long time.
The Rise of Esports
The competitive gaming scene was starting to heat up by the time CS:GO was released in August 2012. High speed broadband was being rolled out around the world, Twitch had just celebrated its first birthday and the concept of streaming gaming tournaments online was taking off.
League of Legends and StarCraft were proving popular, but there was not a first-person shooter owning that space. CS:GO came along and established itself as the dominant FPS title within the esports scene for a number of reasons.
It has a low skill floor and that makes it easy to pick up and enjoy, while it is also easy for viewers to follow the action. It also boasts an exceptionally high skill ceiling, meaning it is possible for professional players to achieve a level of talent that amateurs can only dream of. That makes it thrilling for casual gamers to watch the leading lights in action.
It also demands a high level of strategy, which makes it a perfect multiplayer game. A huge professional scene has sprung up around this game and it now sits alongside League of Legends and Dota 2 as one of the world’s three most popular esports.
There are many big teams, major tournaments take place across the globe each year and big companies are ploughing huge sums of money into the scene through sponsorship deals. The rise of CS:GO betting has been huge, as fans love wagering on the action. The CS:GO community is huge and its profile is boosted by a growing number of superstars that act as ambassadors for it.
First Mover Advantage
The other big FPS series is Call of Duty, but that has gone down a totally different path. Activision releases a new game in the CoD series each year and it has no desire to secure longevity for any of them.
There is a pro scene, but it is small compared to that of CS:GO, because it is difficult to thrive when you have to constantly adapt to a new title. It also has less of a focus on multiplayer gaming, and the skill ceiling is lower.
The main competitors CS:GO faces in the FPS esports genre are Overwatch and Rainbow Six Siege. Both have enjoyed strong growth over the past few years, but CS:GO was around first. It had already built up a large, passionate and loyal community by the time they were released. Many gamers had invested a great deal of time and energy into building up their CS:GO skills, and they have been reluctant to abandon it in favour of something new.
Valve constantly updates CS:GO to keep the gameplay fresh and take advantage of technological developments. This means that the technology underpinning the game is not seven years old, and it turns CS:GO into a living game, and that has really allowed it to enjoy longevity.
The Advent of Skins
You cannot talk about the success of CS:GO without mentioning the skins. Players can customise the appearance of the characters they inhabit and that is a massive deal among the community.
There are entire markets built around these skins and they are traded between gamers, with some selling for large sums. The Dragon Lore style of AWP from the Boston Major is the most expensive CS:GO skin ever sold, as it went for $61,052.63 in January 2018.
The ability to make huge sums of cash is a major pull for gamers. It created a global currency that allowed players to trade, gamble and make thousands of dollars, while also expressing their creativity, and it is a major factor in the game’s success.
Accessibility
CS:GO was initially sold for around $15 and that accessibility really helped it rack up a high number of sales. By 2016, it had sold more than 25 units, and that apparently made it the bestselling PC game of all time.
It the went free to play in December 2018, a move that allowed millions more gamers to discover the joys of CS:GO. It was a sensible move from Valve, following the model of Dota 2 and many more top esports.
There are now no barriers to entry for gamers. They can download CS:GO for free and Valve continuously invests in updates designed to improve the game. It makes heaps of cash through a microtransaction model that sees players make in-game purchases that personalise the experience, but you are under no obligation to actually spend any money.
Huge pro teams like Astralis, Team Liquid, Evil Genuises, Fnatic, Natus Vincere, Team Vitality and so on ensure it has superstar gamers in many different markets across the globe, from Brazil to Denmark, and casual gamers love following their exploits, so CS:GO appears to have a healthy future.
