Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 is built around competitive, objective-focused multiplayer, making it a natural fit if you want matches centered on teamwork and direct opposition. It is free to play on Steam PC, so $0.00 at Steam leaves the door open to try Premier mode and dynamic smoke grenades without an upfront purchase.

The current offer sits at the site's tracked historical low. Check that the supported interface languages suit you, then decide whether its competitive team play is the kind of multiplayer you want to return to. At $0.00 on Steam, entry costs nothing, and Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese-Brazil, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Greek, Spanish-Latin America, and Vietnamese covers the interface languages.

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85%Steam Reviews9.9M reviews82Metacritic/10080OpenCritic/100

Released: Aug 21, 2012

FPS · Shooter · Multiplayer · Competitive · Action

Steam·Platform:·United States Steam official priceFreeALL-TIME LOWBuy now

KinguinCounter-Strike 2 with Prime Status Upgrade PC Steam Gift·Platform:·Checked 2026-10-19from~ $20.76(~ €18.49)Buy now

All-time low ~ $3.74across Steam & third-party storesat the recorded all-time low

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Price History

Past 36 months · Updated daily

Historical Low~ $0.002023-08Current Low Across Stores~ $0.00SteamAt its historical low now

Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.

Editions

EditionCounter-Strike 2 - FreeView prices →

EditionPrime Status UpgradeView prices →

01About Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 centers on competitive, objective-focused multiplayer matches, with teams fighting to complete missions. Updated Premier mode, CS Ratings, leaderboards, and dynamic smoke grenades build on the classic formula. Steam players rate it 85%% positive from 9,930,207 reviews. The interface supports Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese-Brazil, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Greek, Spanish-Latin America, and Vietnamese. Released August 21, 2012.

Credits

Developer

Valve

Publisher

Valve

Steam player reviews

85%positiveVery Positive9,930,207 Steam reviews

Lowest recorded in 36 months

$0.002023-08-12 · SteamBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.

Language support

Language	Interface	Subtitles	Audio
Simplified Chinese	Yes	—	—
Traditional Chinese	Yes	—	—
English	Yes	—	Yes

Show 25 more languages

Language	Interface	Subtitles	Audio
Czech	Yes	—	—
Danish	Yes	—	—
Dutch	Yes	—	—
Finnish	Yes	—	—
French	Yes	—	—
German	Yes	—	—
Hungarian	Yes	—	—
Italian	Yes	—	—
Japanese	Yes	—	—
Korean	Yes	—	—
Norwegian	Yes	—	—
Polish	Yes	—	—
Portuguese	Yes	—	—
Portuguese-Brazil	Yes	—	—
Romanian	Yes	—	—
Russian	Yes	—	—
Spanish	Yes	—	—
Swedish	Yes	—	—
Thai	Yes	—	—
Turkish	Yes	—	—
Bulgarian	Yes	—	—
Ukrainian	Yes	—	—
Greek	Yes	—	—
Spanish-Latin America	Yes	—	—
Vietnamese	Yes	—	—

Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-20

02Before you buy

Play mode

Free to play on Steam PC; multiplayer and cross-platform multiplayer are listed.

Language and audio

The interface supports English. English full audio is listed; controller support is not established.

03Frequently asked questions

What defines the gameplay?

It pairs classic objective-focused play with updated Premier mode, leaderboards, and dynamic smoke grenades.

Is cross-platform multiplayer available?

Yes. Steam PC data lists cross-platform multiplayer.

What technical changes are described?

The description names Source 2, overhauled maps, and redesigned visuals and audio.

Latest news about Counter-Strike 2

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Popular Steam reviews

Native-language selection · 10 reviews

Selected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.

RecommendedSteam player

07/13/2014

Kill someone with a P90 - "You're a fuc**** noob!! Noob weapon!!" Kill someone with a P90 through a smoke - "You're a fuc**** hacker!!" Kill someone with a AWP - "You're a fuc**** noob!! Noob weapon!!" Kill someone with a AWP through a door - "You're a fuc**** hacker!!" In a 1 vs 5 you die - "You're a fuc**** noob!!" In a 1 vs 5 you win - "You're a fuc**** hacker!!" Kill someone with a headshot - "Hacker!!" Get headshoted by someone - "Owned!!" and get teabagged Kill someone with a grenade - "Luck!!" Get killed by someone with a grenade - "AHAHAHAHA" Get teamkilled by someone - "Get out of the way you fuc**** idiot!!" Accidentally teamkill someone - "You're a fuc**** idiot!!" Blocked by someone - Dies Accidentally blocks someone - "Get out the way you fuc**** idiot!!" Decide to save - "You're a fuc**** coward!!" Decide not to save - "Save you fuc**** idiot!!" Kill someone while defending the bomb - "You fuc**** camper!!" Kill someone while defending the hostages - "You fuc**** camper!!" Someone dies - The deceased one starts to rage Your team lose the round - Your team starts to rage Your team is losing 10-2 - Someone rages quit Go to the balcony in Italy - "You fuc**** hacker!!" Worst guy receives a drop - "Are you fuc**** serious!?" Warm up - Everybody tries to spawn kill Score is 5-1 in your favor - "This is a T map!" Score is 1-5 againts you - "This is a CT map!" Lose the first 2 rounds - Someone asks to get kicked Last round - Everybody buys Negev Your team is loosinh and you are in last - Someone vote kicks you Win a match - All enemy team rages Lose a match - Yout team rages Someone's Internet crashes - 30 minutes ban Your Internet crashes - 7 days ban 10/10 Best rage simulator out there!Show moreShow less

191.3 hours at review20,454 people found this helpful

Not recommendedSteam player

09/28/2023

However you feel about the update to CS2, CS:GO should not have been de-listed. Also, merging reviews of GO into 2's is very dishonest, if EA and Ubisoft would get ♥♥♥♥ for it, why shouldn't Valve?Show moreShow less

334.6 hours at review11,637 people found this helpful

RecommendedSteam player

02/27/2014

you either die a noob or live long enough to get called a hackerShow moreShow less

532.9 hours at review15,653 people found this helpful

Not recommendedSteam player

09/28/2023

Don't get me wrong, I approve CS2, but removing CSGO entirely just makes me mad. Update 26 Feb 2025: Still a downvote. CS2's Season 1 was ok, but Season 2's premier matchmaking is completely broken. First there's been a lot of troubles for players to queue up with their friends. And Valve's logic: Friends can't play together because their ranks are too far apart, yet when you solo Q you are teamed up with 2 4K's and 1 12K. Then ranks don't mean much anymore (they really need to be re-calibrated manually, probably). When you go solo Q, you are teamed up with 1 unranked, a 5k player, a 9k and a 11k, I mean, what the f***? And the enemy team has 3 11k's, and 2 9k's. Then on your team, the "high ranked" players may have good aim but have no game sense. Others "good players" don't know that they can sell his gun when others drop. Then the lower ranked ones may have a godlike reaction time but are clueless about the map. The unranked (usually come with a mate of them) usually take the enemy's AWP but keep it for themselves instead of giving it to the team leader who's been playing excellently with that gun. Others don't even know that they have to plant the bomb xD. You get the picture. Update 04 Nov 2025: MM (Premier) is rigged, VAC works selectively and trust factor feels non-existent. Out of my most 300 recent matches (around 10K ELO), 57.24% were ruined by: 1 or more players abandoned, trolls (griefing, performing well worse than their ELO ratings, Russian or Iberian teammates kicking you for no good reason), and mostly unbalanced teams (with scores from 1-12 to 5-12; 42.17% of ruined matches). That's over half of the matches that you play folks.Show moreShow less

5,646.7 hours at review4,938 people found this helpful

Not recommendedSteam player

12/07/2018

Review edit: down below. Players: We want more optimization for the game and a better VAC CSGO: You mean you want a battle royale Players: No w- CSGO: And you want the game to be free right? Players: That's a bad ide- CSGO: We also brought the jump glitch back Players: Why the fuc- CSGO: Primes also been given to anyone who has ever owned CSGO Players: Are you guys ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ morons CSGO: You can also buy your way into prime. Valve you are actually ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ retarded what the ♥♥♥♥ Here's literally the simplest way we can tell you how to fix this: - Fix VAC - Fix Prime - Fix Bugs - Don't put a BR into a competitive FPS game - And don't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ make the game free to play and then give everyone a coin for being retarded and actually buying this game. There was zero communication between CSGO and the players, you legit just asked if we were free Wednesday, and now I wish I was busy so I never would of have to play this. EDIT: A more structured, critical review. I decided to try the game again to give a better review rather than just lashing out at what I saw earlier, and in a completely honest way, I'm still unhappy, but not as unhappy as I was prior. I still love this game if it is not evident by the number of hours that I have on my account. But still, I have some critiques on this. The Battle Royale When I heard the idea of a battle royale in CS, I was against it, they've never quite been my thing and the popularity of games like fortnite completely destroyed any hope that I had for battle royales in games. However, CSGO's battle royale does have some pros with some cons at the same time. Do take into account that I am biased against battle royales. Pros: - It's a fresh new take on the battle royale genre. - Thing like escorting hostages add a great addition to the game mode as a way to get money whilst still being involved with anything around you. - The idea of choosing and seeing where others drop is a nice feature. Cons (take into account I am biased against battle royales): - It doesn't fit well into a CS game, yes I understand that I don't have to play it but it does my head in that it's advertised on the main screen. - Ammo is actually harder to find than real life aliens, the fact that you pick ammo up 1 by 1 doesn't make this any easier. - Drones break if there is a ledge near where you are standing. I bought some ammo and the drone was confused if an inanimate wall was actually me. - The amount of actual shake you receive when getting hit is akin to an earthquake, given I had some fun with my friends going around and bashing people to the point where it's like the Negev in warmup. - Finally, it's a battle royale. You didn't have to follow this trend CS, even if it was planned a while ago. Free To Play This is one of the more concerning things that I had with the update, CS is already filled with cheaters and can sometimes make the game so irritating that I've put it down for a couple weeks. As 3kliksphilip said its probably the game with the most cheaters (Does CS:GO Updates not entertain you) But now I have some confidence in their decision for making it free to play, it allows more people to experience CS and will most likely double the population which isn't a downside. The thought that Valve has made the game free to play shows that they have confidence in VAC and that VAC will learn a lot more things due to the games new state. Prime This issue is one of the main reasons that this review is staying as not recommended. The idea that you can pay into prime and that people who have already bought the game will now have instant prime. This kind of makes me think that prime will be reduced to a standard trust factor match which cheaters are somewhat abundant. But if Valve is confident enough in their VAC, this shouldn't be a problem. However, the amount of cheaters who have probably been grinding enough to get prime on multiple accounts is worrying. Valve in General My issue with prime has nothing on this. Valve don't really know much about their audience. We believe that we are entitled due to the amount of ♥♥♥♥ they have given us in the past years (AUG Week, R8's introduction *solved quickly, nerfing weapon speeds *this affected pros but they can manage now, #HikoMissed). My problem isn't really with this, it's with Valve's transparency, they never tell us what they're going to do and expect us to all love their new idea like its Chef Boyardee's canned pasta. No one has really ever asked for battle royale in CS, we ask for improvements which are normally disregarded. In short, I'm upset with this update, but not as upset as I once was, I still have faith in Valve although it is withering at a fast pace. Response to comments: @PapaNotedVevo: Agreed that it makes the player base bigger, dislike the concept of battle royale in cs. @JustSqueeze: Cause why can't I? As long as I have skins and fun with my friends then who cares? @Count Chocula: H1Z1s peak player base was 150,179, it's now 24-hour peak is averaging the 3,000 range. This isn't good for a game, it puts people off from the original concept. @thehemmo: Yeah I agree with you now my man. @waffle.jpeg: I won't play it, I'm not being forced to. It's a bad addition to a competitive game and I won't play it anymore, regarding optimization, I'm glad you can run this on your 12 year old labtop as you said. And yeah I was probably wrong about the optimization thing, some of my friends with lower-end pc's still cannot run it. @RandyCo: Prime isn't mean to be something you can pay for, prime is meant to be for people who have played the long enough and deserve a place where they can play without cheaters, cool VACnet is enabled, I forgot that gets rid of every cheater ever, did you? I just miss source man, the games only full priced because valve can't afford to make Gmod assets free. If Source-style movement was back in the game, I wouldn't care what happens.Show moreShow less

829.8 hours at review4,620 people found this helpful

Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.