Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the sequel to the popular first-person shooter
Counter-Strike: Source, developed by
Valve.
Global Offensives development began when
Hidden Path Entertainment attempted to
port Counter-Strike: Source onto video game consoles. The closed
beta started on November 30, 2011, and was initially restricted to around ten thousand people who received a key at events intended to showcase
Global Offensive. After issues with
client and server stability were addressed, the beta was opened up to progressively more people, Before the public beta, Valve invited professional
Counter-Strike players to play-test the game and give feedback. There were plans for
cross-platform multiplayer play between Windows, OS X, Linux, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 players, but this was ultimately dropped so that the PC and Mac versions could be actively updated. On August 21, 2012, the game was publicly released on all platforms except Linux, which would not be released until September 23, 2014.
Post-launch updates Since the initial release of
Global Offensive, Valve has continued to update the game by introducing new maps and weapons, game modes, and weapon balancing changes. One of the first major additions to the game post-release was the "Arms Deal" update. Released on August 13, 2013, the update added cosmetic weapon finishes, or
skins, to the game. These items are obtainable by a
loot box mechanism; players would receive cases that could be unlocked using virtual keys, purchased through in-game
microtransactions.
Global Offensive has
Steam Workshop support, allowing users to upload user-created content, such as maps, weapon skins, and custom game-modes. Some popular user-created skins are added to the game and are obtainable from unboxing them in cases. The creators of the skins are paid when their item is added to a case. These skins helped form a
virtual economy in
Global Offensive, leading to the creation of gambling, betting, and trading sites. The addition of skins and the associated virtual economy launched ''Global Offensive's
player count past the other games in the Counter-Strike'' series and is one of the most important updates in the game's history. Events called "Operations" are held occasionally and can be accessed through purchasable expansion packs in the form of "operation passes." These passes grant access to operation objectives which are spread over different game modes, such as Arms Race and Deathmatch, Completing these challenges rewards the player with XP and the ability to upgrade the operation "coin." The maps in the operations are community made, meaning some of the revenue made goes towards the map designers. An update in October 2014 added "music kits", which replace the
default in-game music with music from
soundtrack artists commissioned by Valve. If a player with a music kit equipped becomes the round's
most valuable player, their music will play for others at the end of the round. There is a feature that allows kits to be borrowed, and kits can be sold and exchanged through Steam's Community Market. In 2016, the game saw two remakes of original
Counter-Strike maps, as well as the introduction of Prime matchmaking and additional items. As a part of the Operation Wildfire promotion,
Nuke was remade and re-released in February with the primary goals being to balance the map and make it more aesthetically pleasing. In April, Prime matchmaking was added to the game. To partake in this mode, the user had to have a verified phone number connected to their account. It was introduced in an attempt to prevent legitimate players from playing with cheaters or high-skilled players playing on alternative, lower ranked accounts, a practice colloquially known as "
smurfing".
Inferno, another original map, was re-released in October. Valve said they had three reasons behind the remake: "to improve visibility; to make it easier to move around in groups; and to tune it with player feedback." Also in October, consumable items called graffiti were added to the game. These items replaced a feature present in the previous iterations of the series called sprays. Previously, players could customize their sprays. Graffiti ideas can be uploaded to the Steam Workshop in the similar manner as gun skins and players can buy and trade the existing graffiti in game. One month later, glove skins were added. In September 2017, Valve Company worked with the publisher
Perfect World to release Global Offensive in mainland China. Chinese citizens, with their identification verified, can receive the game for free and earn Prime matchmaking status immediately. The game is played through Perfect World's launcher and contains numerous exclusive changes to the game, including the censorship of skulls and other symbols. Some other changes were in the cosmetics in certain maps, for example, the
hammer and sickle on Cache and Train were removed. In preparation for the release, multiple cities in China celebrated and heavily promoted its upcoming release. In compliance with Chinese law, Valve also had to disclose its
loot box gambling odds. In November 2017, an update to the competitive matchmaking was announced. Called the "Trust Factor", it meant a player's "Trust Factor" would be calculated through both in-game and Steam-wide actions. Factors such as playtime on Global Offensive, times a user has been reported for cheating, playtime on other Steam games, and other behaviors hidden by Valve are taken into consideration when a user's "Trust Factor" is developed. This was done in an attempt to let the community bond back together in matchmaking, as Prime matchmaking separated Prime and non-Prime players from each other. Valve will not let users view their "Trust Factor" or reveal all of the factors deciding one's "Trust". In August 2018, an offline version of the game was released that allows the players to play offline with bots. An update released on December 6, 2018, made the game fully
free to play. Users who had purchased the game prior to this update were automatically updated to "Prime" status and given modes that can drop cosmetic items. In addition, the new version introduced a
battle royale mode called "Danger Zone", and brought a new interface style called "Panorama", which replaced the former Scaleform Interface. In November 2019, Operation Shattered Web was released. It operated similarly to the previous operations and introduced new character models and a
battle pass system. In April 2020,
source code for 2018 versions of
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and
Team Fortress 2 were leaked on the Internet. This created fears that malicious users would take advantage of the code to develop potential
remote code execution software and attack game servers or players' own computers. Several ongoing fan projects temporarily halted development in wake of this news until better confirmation of the impact of the leak could be determined. Valve confirmed the legitimacy of the code leaks, but stated they do not believe it impacts servers and clients running the latest official builds of either game. In December 2020, Operation Broken Fang was released accompanied with a cinematic
trailer, the first official
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive cinematic trailer in eight years since the official launch trailer. In May 2021, a subscription service called "CS:GO 360 Stats" was released for per month. It includes access to detailed match stats from official Competitive, Premier, and Wingman game modes and the Round Win Chance report introduced in Operation Broken Fang. The update was met with a mixed response from players, with many pointing to free third-party websites that provided similar stats. In September 2021, Operation Riptide was released, adding gameplay and matchmaking changes, new maps, and new cosmetic items. In January 2022, an update adding
Flick Stick support for gyroscopic game controllers was released. Flick Stick is a control scheme which lets the player quickly "flick" their view using the right analog stick, while delegating all fine aiming to gyro movements.
Counter-Strike 2 In March 2023, Valve announced
Counter-Strike 2 as an update to
Global Offensive. Following a
closed beta that began on March 22, 2023, the game was released on September 27, 2023.
Counter-Strike 2 features major technical improvements over
Global Offensive. The
Counter-Strike 2 update moved the game from the
Source game engine to
Source 2, introduced "responsive
smokes" that could be interacted with, and redesigned versions of classic series maps. Various features from
Global Offensive were removed, such as the game modes Arms Race (which was later reintroduced in early 2024) and Danger Zone, and all 167 in-game achievements were removed. Alongside this, only ten maps were included at launch.
Counter-Strike 2 replaced
Global Offensive on Steam, but it remained possible to play
Global Offensive on community servers by selecting an older build version in a Steam configuration panel.
Global Offensive was later re-listed on Steam on March 3, 2026 as a separate title from
Counter-Strike 2, though the matchmaking servers remain offline. Additionally, the Xbox 360 console release was not updated, and
Global Offensive remains playable there.
Counter-Strike 2 received a mixed response from players, primarily as a result of removed content.
Gambling, third-party betting, and money laundering Following the introduction of the
Arms Deal update in August 2013, skins formed a virtual economy due to their rarity and other high-value factors that influenced their desirability. Due to this, the creation of a number of skin trading sites enabled by the
Steamworks API were created. Some of these sites began to offer gambling functionality, allowing users to bet on the outcome of professional matches with skins. In June and July 2016, two formal lawsuits were filed against these gambling sites and Valve, stating that these encourage
underage gambling and undisclosed promotion by some streamers. Valve in turn began to take steps to prevent these sites from using Steamworks for gambling purposes, and several of these sites ceased operating as a result. In July 2018, Valve disabled the opening of containers in Belgium and the Netherlands after their
loot boxes appeared to violate Dutch and Belgian gambling laws. In 2019, Valve made changes to
Global Offensive's loot box mechanics due to a realization that "nearly all" of the trading on loot box keys was done by criminal organizations as a method of
money laundering. Valve released a statement, saying, “In the past, most key trades we observed were between legitimate customers. However, worldwide fraud networks have recently shifted to using CS:GO keys to liquidate their gains. At this point, nearly all key purchases that end up being traded or sold on the marketplace are believed to be fraud-sourced. As a result, we have decided that newly purchased keys will not be tradeable or marketable.” ==Professional competition==