Counter-Strike: Global Offensive officially taken offline for good

Valve’s beloved first-person-shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has been officially left behind by the developer.

It’s a sad time, as even if you hadn’t played it you’ll have no doubt heard about it or seen some gameplay online. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the best tactical shooters on PC, inspiring games like Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege and contributing heavily to Twitch and YouTube content.

Take a look at Counter-Strike 2 below

It also featured a prominent in-game market revolving around weapon skins. All skins have a value and can be obtained through loot boxes and sold on for real money. One weapon skin even sold for as much as $400,000, just to show how serious some people take it.

All good things must come to an end though, as last year Valve announced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was to be replaced with Counter-Strike 2, basically the same game but with a few key changes.

It launched on Steam to a mixed reception, even becoming the developer’s worst-rated game despite it being completely free-to-play like the first game. Fans have grown a bit more accustomed to it over the last few months, but there are still plenty who prefer the first game, unfortunately Valve don’t share the sentiment.

While both games are still available on Steam, it was announced support for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive would conclude on 1 January 2024, and the game has now been converted to “legacy” status.

This means there’ll be no more content updates, or patches/fixes. You can still play online, but not through official matchmaking. This means you’ll only be able to play via community hosted servers, or bite the bullet and play Counter-Strike 2 instead.

It’s a tough pill to swallow, but unfortunately there’s nothing that can be done. That being said Counter-Strike 2 is a fine replacement, and after a few more post-launch updates it’ll probably reach the same esteemed status the first game had for some many years.