As the world`s largest online gaming platform, Steam draws millions of users daily, offering them multiplayer gaming, social networking, and video streaming services. However, some gaming titles rank high above others regarding the number of players and total hours played.
According to data presented by Sports Lens, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the most popular game on Steam, with more than one million daily players, 30% more than the second-ranked Dota 2.
More than 467 million Hours Played in 30 Days
As the fourth game in the top-rated Counter-Strike series, CS:GO hit the shelves in 2012, and despite being on the market for over a decade, it is as popular as ever. At the beginning of 2014, there were over 2.2 million CS:GO players globally. Since then, this figure has grown to 36.2 million.
Statista and Steam Charts data show the multiplayer shooter game racked up an impressive one million daily players on January 6, much more than competing titles Dota 2, Lost Ark and Apex Legends. Statistics show the game had 1.01 million peak players in the last 30 days, while all CS:GO fans spent over 467 million hours playing the game on Steam in this time frame.
With close to 700,000 daily players, Dota 2 ranked as the second most-popular Steam game. Statistics show Dota 2 had 772,938 peak players in the last month, and a total of 341 million hours played on the gaming platform.
Goos Goos Duck ranked third with over 563,000 daily players. PUBG BATTLEGROUNDS and Apex Legends close the top five club, with 424,000 and 352,000 daily players, respectively. Together, the five games have recorded more than a mind-blowing 1.1 billion hours played on Steam in the last thirty days.
The Third Highest-Paid Game in Esports
Besides leading in the number of active players, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive sits high on the list of the highest-paid games in the eSports industry.
According to EsportsEarnings data, CS:GO ranked as the third highest-paid eSports game of all time, with $145.3 million in cumulative prize money, won in more than 6,500 tournaments. Statistics show CS:GO players won more prize money than League of Legends and Arena of Valor players, but is still behind Dota 2 and Fortnite as the two highest-paid games.
Dota 2 players have raked in $310.9 million in tournaments so far, and Fortnite players follow with over $147 million in cumulative prize money.
