2021 was the first year where LAN events came back for the perennial multiplayer FPS game – we peer closer on how CSGO faired, highlights and achievements
CS:GO has seen the rise and fall of the game throughout the years, and 2021 was one of the more turbulent years, reinforced by the pandemic which kept fans and players inside.
But, the year of 2021 is the year where we saw an increase in viewership, participation and most exciting, the LAN competition returned to the CS:GO scene.
The first Major in two years, the first major LAN event in two years and the biggest prize pool for any CS:GO event thus far – the year was memorable for the game and for the community.
How the game is like right now
CS:GO has seen a resurgence of interest thanks to the fanbase that is looking back to consumer CS:GO-related content and tournaments. The pandemic has forced people to go online more, which turns older fans to clips and streams available online. The rise of viewership is also seen with newer fans growing interest in the older game as they exhaust content to watch while they are stuck at home.
The game itself saw a few updates through the year, along with the introduction of a paywall for players. While the idea of a paywall was a debated point in the community – Valve’s reasoning for the introduction was to cut down the number of bots in the ranked matches. The game did see a drop of player count when initially implemented, but in the long run, the quality of play has been for the better as the players will face less bots while they attempt to rank up in CS:GO.
CS:GO is still strong and big – believe us
After nine years in the market, CS:GO is still going strong among the players online.. Heck, even a big name like Neymar Jr was seen playing the game, and that is saying something.
As of right now, the game saw a peak of 950K players within the last 30 days, with an average daily of 546K in the month of December according to steamcharts.com. Leetify, a third-party CS:GO software platform provider, made an analysis on which locations have the biggest number of CS:GO Global Elite players. Right now, the list looks like the following:
- Finland (4.32%)
- Sweden (2.73%)
- Estonia (2.60%)
Also, according to them, the top five countries with the highest percentage of players are:
- Russia (11.65%)
- USA (10.66%)
- Poland (5.32%)
- Brazil (4.87%)
- Germany (4.55%)
This is based on the data that they collected from 7 million players around the world.
LAN is back in 2021
Of course, talking about CS:GO, we must talk about LAN events. A mainstay of CS:GO tournaments, the early part of the year was somewhat of a pain for fans and players alike as most of the big events had to be played online only. The energy, the buzz and the excitement of a LAN event was not felt at the online-only events.
The first LAN since the start of the pandemic, IEM Cologne, was sort of a LAN, as the players were playing on site but lacked the spectators. Even so, the tournament was watched by over 800K viewers online, where the peak was during the grand final between G2 Esports and Natus Vincere where the latter beat the former 3-0.
The real LAN that everyone was waiting for was the PGL Major Stockholm. The first true major in over 24 months, the biggest tournament of the year also boasted the biggest prize money ever for CS:GO - $2,000,000. 24 teams from all over the world competed to reach the grand finals. In the end, it was a showdown between, again, G2 Esports and Natus Vincere. The two teams delivered an entertaining final round of the tournament, watched by over 2.7 million viewers around the world. Na’Vi won the Major with a score of 2-0, capping off a year of excellence for the team.
What’s next for CS:GO
Even with competition from other games such as VALORANT and Overwatch, CS:GO is still a favourite among many fans all over the world. The tactics, the plays, and the players are what makes up the CS:GO, and 2022 is expected to give fans more as we transition into more LAN events next year, barring the status of the pandemic spread around the world.
