Release Notes for 10/9/2023
October 10, 2023
- Fixed a case where feet would appear black when looking down at them through a scope
- Fixed a memory leak due to particles
- Fixed several hitbox alignment bugs
- Fixed knife spinning not feeling as fast as in CS:GO
- Fixed the bolt not moving during the M4A4 and M4A1-S deployment animations
- Fixed a bug where weapon inspect could interrupt the silencer toggle animation
- Various bug fixes and tweaks to Mirage, Vertigo, and Nuke
- Fixed several bugs with "Looking to Play"
- Various bug fixes and tweaks to weapon finishes and stickers
- Fixed a bug where loadout changes weren't saved if the game was closed shortly after making changes
- Fixed a bug where Steam Friends' match status was delayed or missing
- CPU performance improvements for weapon tracers
- Added an official matchmaking datacenter in Chengdu, China
Release Notes for 10/6/2023
October 07, 2023
- Fixed a case where water would appear black in screenshots and video capture
- For AMD GPU users, shader compilation hitches can now be fixed with a driver update: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-23-20-11-7
- Fixed a case where the grenade throw animation would be canceled by holding the inspect key
- Adjusted M4A4 and M4A1-S draw animation to start from out-of-frame
- Minor animation system performance optimizations
- Various bug fixes and tweaks to Nuke, Vertigo, Anubis, and Overpass
- All surrender votes now require a majority to pass
- Fixed an exploit where players could spam chat during the Premier draft phase
- Fixed a bug where kicked players were receiving the maximum CS Rating penalty. Kicked players will now receive CS Rating based on the final outcome of the match instead
- Fixed a bug where the first character at the beginning of the terrorist team intro wouldn't render
- Configured SDL to prefer X11 over Wayland on Linux
- Paris 2023 items are no longer for sale
Release Notes for 10/4/2023
October 05, 2023
- Removed Model / Texture Detail: Very High setting since it was identical to High. They used to differ by Texture Filtering Mode, but that's a separate setting now
- Repositioned finger on AWP so it doesn't look as long
- Various bug fixes and tweaks to Inferno, Anubis, Vertigo, Ancient, and Mirage
- Various bug fixes and tweaks to stickers
- Adjusted crosshair outline rendering for fractional values
- Fixed a bug where disconnecting from and reconnecting to a match would result in less XP
- Fixed the "buy <item>" command to work with the new flexible loadout system. The command will now find the named item in your loadout instead of assuming a default slot. If the named item isn't in your loadout, the command will fail. To buy by slot, use "buy secondary0", "buy midtier1", "buy rifle2", etc. instead
- Various tweaks to automatic sniper rifle muzzle flashes
- Various tweaks to glass impact effects
- Added sort options to secondary inventory select panel for actions like applying stickers
- Fixed a bug where users in Germany were incorrectly identified as users in China
Release Notes for 10/2/2023
October 03, 2023
- Removed movement penalty on mud surfaces
- Fixed a bug with shader compilation when connecting to a server that was causing hitches after connecting. Note that these hitches may still exist on AMD GPUs; we are working with AMD to address this
- Fixed a bug where knife slashing couldn't be interrupted with an inspect
- Various bug fixes and tweaks to weapon finishes and gloves
- Fixed a case where molotov/incendiary grenades would create a fire ring in the air
- Improved performance of molotov/incendiary fire extinguishing
- Various improvements to weapon dropping and throwing
- Various crash fixes
Release Notes for 9/29/2023
September 30, 2023
- Fixed a case where grenade sounds were missing when exploding in-air
- Added separate sounds for grenades landing in vs out of the playable area
- Fixed a case where both terrorists in a Wingman match would appear to have the bomb
- Various bug fixes for the Vulkan renderer
- Updated Phoenix Soldier icon to reflect recent balaclava color change
- Fixed a rendering issue in the nametag inspect panel
- Disallowed binding toggleconsole to mouse1 since it was preventing normal menu interactions
- Various bug fixes and tweaks to weapon finishes and stickers
- Fixed a case where surrender votes would incorrectly fail
- Fixed a case where foot pinning wasn't active
- Various bug fixes and tweaks to Ancient
- Players who launch the game in China and have previously accepted the Steam China Subscriber Agreement will now get a prompt at launch which allows selecting "-perfectworld" or "-worldwide" mode
- Launch prompt can be activated with "-promptperfectworld" command line flag or completely bypassed if "-perfectworld" or "-worldwide" command line flag is used
- To launch a community dedicated server, you can use this reference command line:
- cs2 -dedicated +map de_dust2
Release Notes for 9/28/2023
September 29, 2023
- Fixed missing win/loss/MVP music in Casual
- Put range clamps on r_fullscreen_gamma, r_texture_stream_max_resolution, and r_character_decal_resolution
- Fixed smokes not rendering correctly on AMD GPUs on Linux
- Adjusted grenade throw animations to reduce view obstruction
- Fixed a case where players would float a few inches off the ground after spawning
- Various bug fixes and tweaks to Mirage and Overpass
- Various bug fixes and tweaks to weapon finishes and stickers
- Updated Phoenix Soldier balaclava from green to original red color
- Fixed missing pouches on certain SWAT agents
- Fixed a bug where loadout shuffle would never happen
- Increased clickable area of sellback buttons in buy menu
- Fixed a case where the death panel would stay on-screen after respawning quickly
- Disabled CSTV and demo recording temporarily to increase server availability so more people can play
Release Notes for 9/27/2023 Night
September 28, 2023
- Weapon sounds will no longer sound like they come from the spot you are zoomed into
- Updated water in Nuke to fix an issue with smoke
- Reduced maximum amount of water refraction since it was looking too noisy/distracting
- Fixed a case where the death panel wouldn't show
- Fixed a case where the preview crosshair wouldn't show in game settings
- Fixed a case where debug text would appear on the crosshair
Welcome Home
September 28, 2023

Counter-Strike 2 is here.
Come take a look around. Counter-Strike 2 is the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike's history, supporting new features today and updates for years to come.
If you're a returning player you'll find your favorite maps and matchmaking modes right where you left them, along with a revamped Premier mode where you can establish your all-new CS Rating. Rise through the ranks and see where you stand on global and regional leaderboards.
For new players, learn the basics with some offline training and jump into Casual and Deathmatch to hone your skills. Once you've unlocked Competitive matchmaking you'll be off to the races.
Grab your friends, and come join millions of players around the world. Welcome to Counter-Strike 2.
Release Notes for 9/27/2023
September 28, 2023
- Counter-Strike 2 is now available and free to play
- Season One of Premier has begun
- Enabled Competitive matchmaking
- Enabled Wingman matchmaking
- Enabled Private Matchmaking
- Added Training Day, a brief introductory experience for brand new players
- Improved player-against-player movement collision
- Improved consistency of bullet penetration
- Player reflections in water are now occluded by smoke
- Molotov fire now floats above the water
- Fixed character ambient occlusion being visible through walls
- C4 bomb lights don't reflect through walls
- Fixed some rare cases of viewmodel lighting corruption
- Adjusted smoke behavior to cover cases where smoke would stop less than a player's height above the ground
- Fix various bugs with switching teams in the middle of offline Deathmatch
- Fixed Famas reloading too early
- Chickens can finally fall off Vertigo
- Added the new CS2 default music kit
- Added new audio customization settings
- Various mix tweaks and adjustments
- Various bug fixes related to music kits
- Updated the game startup sound
- Added background ambience to main menu scenes
- Restored the clutch_mode_toggle function
- Fixed a bug where sometimes c4 defuse and planting sounds could not be heard in certain locations
- Fixed some surfaces being incorrectly tagged causing incorrect footstep sounds in certain locations
- Fixed a bug where attackers could not hear headshot feedback through wallbangs or smokes
- Body damage feedback for attackers will now play within the same distance as it does for onlookers through smokes and wallbangs
- Fixed a bug where scoping in affected directional sound
- First person damage sounds are now more impactful
- Removed several legacy audio convars that existed in CS:GO but never had an effect in CS2
- Adjusted character additive lean animation
- Adjusted jump animation, particularly when repeatedly jumping
- Adjusted jiggle-peeking animation
- Adjusted animated character head position relative to camera position
- Added bullet belt to negev
- Reduced foot sliding when carrying slower weapons
- Fixed character momentarily standing during crouch-planting animation
- Fixed incorrect viewmodel deploy speeds
- Fixed pops in some weapon inspect animations
- Inspecting weapons may now interrupt deploy animation
- When one or more party members get convicted of cheating and permanently banned, all their associates will be penalized with loss of Profile Rank and CS Rating
- In Premier, players with a very high established CS Rating are not allowed to party with accounts that do not have an established CS Rating
- Various bug fixes and tweaks for all shipped maps
- Adjusted vertical audio occlusion boundaries in Nuke and Vertigo
- Added an extra bell in Inferno
- Casual and Deathmatch maps are now separated into multiple map groups
- CS:GO Players who started playing more than a week ago will receive a commemorative CS:GO coin and CS:GO Music Kit
- Added Store tab to main menu
- Enabled all interactions with inventory items
- Replaced weekly drops with a weekly Care Package. Choose from weapon cases, weapon finishes, and graffiti
- Added demo playback support
- Added the ability to favorite and shuffle loadout items
- Added new item icons
- Office and Vertigo are available as main menu scenery
- Various updates for weapon finishes, including fixing overly strong wear on several Custom Paint Job finishes
- Reworked Phoenix Street Soldier balaclava texture to resolve visibility issues
- Enabled animated eyes on agent character models
- Game clients running in workshop tools mode are not allowed to connect to VAC secure game servers
- Added an all-new help system featuring contextually relevant guides and information. Guides include gray scale value ranges for alpha channel masking, paint-by-number mask color assignments based on current finish type, and much more!
- Removed dynamic props from solid color inspect backgrounds
Release Notes for 9/15/2023
September 16, 2023
Office
- Adjusted the weight of the vending machine
- Various fixes
- Various clipping adjustments
- Tuned the vertical audio occlusion of grenade sounds in Nuke and Vertigo
- Adjusted ambient sounds in Office
- Adjusted silenced weapon falloff
- Fixed a case where an AK47 headshot would not deal lethal damage
- Adjusted nametag location for Shadow Daggers