Today, September 27th, 2023, the long wait for Counter-Strike fans was finally over. We’ll show you what you need to know about the release of CS2.
Since Counter-Strike 2 was announced in March 2023 and is considered the successor to the popular e-sports title Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, fans have been waiting for news about the official release of the tactical shooter – and it could be surprisingly close.
We’ll show you everything you need to know about the release here.
Update, September 27, 2023, 9:40 p.m.: The article originally appeared on September 26th, when it was still community speculation that Counter-Strike 2 would be released on Wednesday. We updated the article on the evening of September 27th, after Counter-Strike 2 was released.
Counter-Strike 2 release: date and time
What do we know about the release? Counter-Strike 2 was officially released as an update for CS:GO at 10:40 p.m. on September 27, 2023.
Just in time for the release, Valve also released a short launch trailer for Counter-Strike 2, in which they show the gameplay and some revised maps of the tactical shooter.
You can see the CS2 launch trailer here:
Valve shows Counter-Strike 2 in the launch trailer
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What was previously known about the release of CS2? Already on September 20th, a post from the official Counter-Strike 2 Twitter account caused speculation in the community. In the run-up to the release, players suspected that CS2 could be released on September 27th.
In the tweet, the CS2 account asked what Twitter users will do next Wednesday. Fans believe this means CS2 will be fully released on that day.
We are embedding the tweet from the CS2 account here:
What time is the release? An exact time for the release was not known in advance, as the release on September 27th was only speculation by the community. According to rumors, the CS:GO successor was supposed to be released at 7:00 p.m. German time, but nothing came of it.
Hours later, at 10:40 p.m., the time had come and CS2 replaced CS:GO.
Counter-Strike 2 ushers in a new era – the most important changes in the video
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Counter-Strike 2 on Steam: price and download
This is known about the price of CS2: Counter-Strike is released as a free upgrade to CS:GO, which is also free-to-play. Valve announced this on the official Counter-Strike website.
What do we know about downloading CS2? According to Steam, the download of Counter-Strike 2 is a total of 33.6 GB, making it slightly larger than CS:GO.
If the download initially causes you problems or the store page still shows CS:GO, it helped us to close Steam completely – if necessary even via the task manager.
During the limited test phase of Counter-Strike 2, which ran since March 2023, the download of CS2 was just under 15 GB.
Is Counter-Strike 2 coming to PS5, PS4 and Xbox Series?
This is what we know about a console release: At the moment nothing is known about a release of Counter-Strike 2 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One. Even the limited test phase of CS2 is not and was not playable on consoles.
Since CS:GO is not available on Xbox or PlayStation, the chances of a console release for Counter-Strike 2 are slim.
Counter-Strike 2 on PS5, PS4 or Xbox – Is the shooter coming to consoles?