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CSGO is one of the most popular esports in the world, but how did it get to that point?

CSGO has been topping various lists of most popular games for more than two decades now. Despite all the new titles in the industry, this game franchise continues to be adored by millions of gamers around the world. People simply love CS. It’s one of the main reasons why the competitive FPS genre became so popular in the games industry.

In fact, this game has become so popular that it of course became an esport, played by professional teams all over the globe. Just like any sport, this game has professional tournaments as well as leagues where teams compete for a prize. Moreover, bookmakers introduced CSGO esports betting, meaning you can place bets on this game just like on football or basketball, for example.

But how did CSGO become so popular? Let’s take a short trip back in time to explore the origins of this game and its rise to stardom.

The first Counter-Strike game

Many great things were not planned – that’s also the case with Counter-Strike too. It wasn’t made by an official company and the budget for making the game was pretty much non-existent.

The first game was actually just a mod for Half-Life. The mod was designed by Jess Cliffe and Minh Le who sold the intellectual property to Valve shortly after they created CS. Half-Life was a popular game that had a single-player scenario and is still considered one of the best PC games ever.

However, CS managed to outgrow its parent game, as thousands of players around the globe started playing this multiplayer FPS.

Before CS was released as a standalone title, it was played as a Half-Life mod. Then along came the CS 1.6 version, and maps such as de_dust2 and de_aztec immediately became some of the most popular digital playgrounds in the world.

Although the speed of the internet wasn’t good enough back then to play the game online, it was available for LAN play, gathering many enthusiasts in rooms filled with cable-connected computers.

Counter-Strike as a standalone title

After 1.6, along came Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. It was created in 2004 by a company called Turtle Rock Studio. What made this game different from its predecessor is that it involved a single-player campaign that also had certain bonus levels.

Following mixed reviews of this game, another version arrived. CS: Source was the name of the third CS game. This one was released just a couple of months after Condition Zero and received very favourable reviews.

The launch of CSGO

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was developed by Hidden Path Entertainment which joined forces with Valve on this one. Just like its predecessor, CSGO was built using the Source engine. The original game was released in 2012 for Windows, OSX, PS3, and Xbox 360. Two years after that, it became available for Linux as well.

Nowadays, approximately 11 million players play CSGO monthly and the game is completely free. The revenue the developers have comes from cosmetic items that can be purchased in the game, and of course the esports side of things generates revenues too.

Much like other CS games, CSGO focuses on choosing either terrorists or counter-terrorists and meeting one of the objectives such as planting or defusing a bomb.

Playing CSGO for fun with friends is always an interesting experience, especially if you enjoy first-person shooters. If you haven’t had an opportunity to try this game (which rock have you been hiding under!?), you might want to check out why it has been so popular for such a long time.

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