Counter-Strike Source soars to 13-year Steam high, and GMod may be the culprit

Nostalgics and newbies alike have swarmed to classic Valve shooter Counter-Strike Source. Hailed as one of the defining FPS games of its era, CS Source is now furiously bunnyhopping its way up the Steam charts, enjoying a wave of popularity unseen in over a decade. While there's no one obvious reason behind this explosion, an update to sandbox hit Garry's Mod may hold the answer.

The Source engine has facilitated some of the best PC games of all time, including Counter-Strike Source, Team Fortress 2, and the Portal series. For most growing up in the early 2000s, Source had the sauce. GMod is also built on Source, and acts as a creative sandbox where players can utilize the engine's assets to craft their own experiences; it's like Roblox for millennials (that hurt to write).

Despite this, Valve never gave GMod developer Facepunch all of the keys to the kingdom, with assets from CS Source and Half-Life 2's episodic content notably missing. For GMod's near-20-year life, this meant you'd still need to have CS Source installed when playing certain community maps, or else you'd be faced down by some particularly hot pink and black textures, as well as an ominous 'ERROR' model.

"With gracious permission from Valve," Facepunch finally 'completed' GMod in its July 23 patch, plugging the content gap and removing the need to shell out ten bucks for CS Source. But how does this factor into CS Sources's soaring numbers? After all, this should, if anything, equate to a spike in GMod players, not CS.

Over the weekend, SteamDB registered a near-57,000 concurrent CS Source player peak, more than doubling its average from the month before it began to spike; it's the most popular the game's been since May 2012. This is a substantial short-term upsurge, not least because its two-dollar price tag in June's Steam Summer Sale barely moved the needle.

The most likely explanation for this, then, is that word-of-mouth surrounding the GMod update has enticed embattled Counter-Strike 2 players to return to 'the good ol' days.' This is evidenced by the wave of positive recent Steam reviews, many of which herald CS Source as the best FPS game ever, even after all these years. Some players are revelling in the ability to play games against bots, presumably to dodge toxic teammates and cheaters. Others are glad to have access to a CS experience they can run on their low-end rigs.

Regardless of how it got there, it's great to see CS Source having its moment. This isn't the first time I've seen a decades-old game return to the spotlight recently; only last week I wrote about RuneScape's resurgence and why it's the perfect MMO for the modern era. As players continue to deal with the fatigue of contemporary gaming, it certainly feels like a counter-culture is beginning to form. A counter-strike, if you will, as we collectively yearn for simpler times. Or we might just be getting old, who knows?

If CS Source is a bit too 'boomer shooter' for you, peep more of the best multiplayer games and new PC games you can play right now.

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