Fact Check: Does Valorant have a bigger player base than CS:GO in 2023?

Riot Games' Valorant has proven itself to be a massively successful idea, even though the idea seems to carry multiple inspirations. Despite having hero-like characters with unique abilities, Valorant is popularly categorized as a tactical first-person shooter, which makes it an experience closer to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, popularly abbreviated as CS:GO, was launched in 2012, and has, since then, weaved together a massive world of esports and competitive gaming in its own right. It revolutionized the genre of first-person shooter games and helped popularize esports in general.

Valorant, on the other hand, is much younger, features visually attractive gameplay and environments, and is steadily conquering the world of esports. In fact, many CS:GO professionals have migrated to Riot's shooter for a better experience or to start afresh.

So, does Riot's hero-based competitive shooter outperform Valve's iconic blunt competitive FPS in terms of their player base, or is the vice versa true? Read on to know.

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Exploring Valorant's player base in 2023: Is it larger than CS:GO?

Even though CS:GO has suffered the consequences of aging, it still draws a considerable player base and remains a massively respected esports title. Valorant also attracts a huge number of competitive FPS fans and hosts an award-winning esports community.

Despite their similarities, Valorant and CS:GO feature massive differences, especially in the core gameplay mechanics. However, there has always been a linkage in their player bases, with a large part of the community indulging in both games. Let's get to comparing the recent player counts related to the said shooters.

At the time of writing, Riot's tactical shooter is reportedly hosting 774,089 concurrent players and boasts a considerable peak of over 2,000,000 daily active players (December 2022 - January 2023), according to Active Player. Here are the monthly active player counts recorded for the game in 2022:

• December 30, 2022: 23,014,487
• November 30, 2022: 22,140,789
• October 30, 2022: 22,501,445
• September 30, 2022: 21,988,040
• August 30, 2022: 21,360,284
• July 30, 2022: 20,760,260
• June 30, 2022: 20,262,155

Valorant is available to download for free via Riot Games' official website and Epic Games Store. CS:GO, being a Valve product, is exclusive to Steam. Players will need a Steam ID to download the title for free via the popular online video-game distribution platform.

At the time of writing, CS:GO is reportedly hosting about 807,795 concurrent players, as per Active Player. The game recorded a peak of over 2,000,000 daily active players in the past month.

Here are the monthly active player counts recorded for CS:GO in 2022:

• December 30, 2022: 36,014,577
• November 30, 2022: 35,698,055
• October 30, 2022: 35,014,476
• September 30, 2022: 34,560,886
• August 30, 2022: 33,698,054
• July 30, 2022: 33,205,540
• June 30, 2022: 32,011,445

As one can decipher, CS:GO featured a considerably higher monthly active player count than Valorant in 2022, indicating that the former still has an upper hand in the player base segment, even in 2023. This can be attributed to the fact that CS:GO has been influencing gamers for more than a decade and has etched its name in the community.

Riot's tactical shooter is far from what CS:GO has achieved up until now, but it is steadily heading towards a promising curve that shows no signs of dropping anytime soon.