Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Esports

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive


Release Date:
2012
Prize Money Awarded:
$162,310,621.33 From 6975 Tournaments
Recorded Date Range:
2012-03-13 to




Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (abbreviated as CS:GO) is a tactical first-person shooter developed by Valve Corporation and Hidden Path Entertainment, who also maintained Counter-Strike: Source after its release. It is the fourth game in the main Counter-Strike franchise. Counter-Strike pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in a series of rounds. Each round is won by either completing the mission objective or eliminating the opposing force.

For the first year of its release, CS:GO was criticized for being what amounts to "Counter-Strike: Source with better visuals". The initial hype died off fairly quickly, with many players returning to Counter-Strike 1.6 or Source where they were more comfortable. But after receiving more than 60 updates to the game that featured major gameplay tweaks and new maps and features, the Counter-Strike community made their permanent transition to CS:GO. Like with Counter-Strike 1.6, many of the best CS:GO players are centered around Europe, with Swedish teams like fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas being the most dominant at the game.

Valve had been criticized about the lack of prize money in the majors they sponsored in the past, with the CS:GO prizes capped at $250,000. The criticism is due to Valve's support of their other competitive game, Dota 2, with their annual multi-million dollar cash prize tournament "The International" able to grow the prize pool via crowd-funding. On March 29, 2016, CS:GO had their first $1 million tournament at the MLG Major Championship in Columbus, Ohio. At the 2016 eSports Industry Awards, CS:GO was named "eSports Game of the Year".

The gameplay of Riot Games' title VALORANT is comparable to CS:GO.



Largest Prize Pools


 Tournament NamePrize Money
1.» PGL Major Stockholm 2021$2,000,000.00
2.» WESG 2016 (CS:GO)$1,500,000.00
3.» WESG 2017 (CS:GO Male)$1,500,000.00
4.» ELEAGUE Season 1$1,410,000.00
5.» BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023$1,250,000.00
6.» Intel Extreme Masters Rio Major 2022$1,250,000.00
7.» ELEAGUE Season 2$1,100,000.00
8.» BLAST Premier: Global Final 2020$1,000,000.00
9.» BLAST Premier: World Final 2021$1,000,000.00
10.» BLAST Premier: World Final 2022$1,000,000.00
11.» ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2017$1,000,000.00
12.» ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018$1,000,000.00
13.» ELEAGUE Major 2017$1,000,000.00
14.» ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018$1,000,000.00
15.» ESL One: Cologne 2016$1,000,000.00
16.» FACEIT Major: London 2018$1,000,000.00
17.» FLASHPOINT Season 1$1,000,000.00
18.» Flashpoint Season 2$1,000,000.00
19.» Gamers8 2023 (CS:GO)$1,000,000.00
20.» IEM 2023 - Cologne$1,000,000.00
21.» IEM Season XV - World Championship$1,000,000.00
22.» IEM Season XVI - Cologne$1,000,000.00
23.» IEM Season XVI - Katowice$1,000,000.00
24.» IEM Season XVII - Cologne$1,000,000.00
25.» IEM Season XVII - Katowice (CS:GO)$1,000,000.00


Top Players


 Player IDPlayer NameTotal (Game)
1.Denmark dupreehPeter Rasmussen$2,181,164.40
2.Denmark Xyp9xAndreas Højsleth$2,001,285.06
3.Denmark dev1ceNicolai Reedtz$1,981,531.54
4.Denmark MagiskEmil Reif$1,881,123.63
5.Denmark gla1veLukas Rossander$1,869,042.41
6.Ukraine s1mpleOleksandr Kostyljev$1,718,355.32
7.Denmark karriganFinn Andersen$1,651,752.06
8.Russian Federation electroNicDenis Sharipov$1,558,058.67
9.Canada TwistzzRussel Van Dulken$1,546,793.10
10.Norway rainHåvard Nygaard$1,444,216.24
11.Bosnia and Herzegovina NiKoNikola Kovač$1,300,569.23
12.France apEXDan Madesclaire$1,298,119.05
13.Canada NAFKeith Markovic$1,228,382.06
14.United States Stewie2kJakey Yip$1,186,573.20
15.Estonia ropzRobin Kool$1,181,527.41
16.United States ELiGEJonathan Jablonowski$1,179,846.02
17.Brazil FalleNGabriel Toledo$1,175,586.54
18.Russian Federation PerfectoIlya Zalutskiy$1,155,970.78
19.Russian Federation Boombl4Kirill Sergeyevich Mikhailov$1,098,738.54
20.Brazil TACOEpitácio de Melo$1,095,886.48
21.Brazil ferFernando Alvarenga$1,077,986.54
22.United States nitr0Nicholas Cannella$1,058,468.13
23.Ukraine B1tValeriy Vakhovskiy$1,050,707.70
24.Brazil coldzeraMarcelo David$1,048,601.46
25.Russian Federation flamieEgor Vasilyev$1,040,294.48


Online/LAN Breakdown


LocationPrize Money% of Total
Online Only$57,220,647.1335.25%
Offline/LAN$105,089,974.2064.75%

Comparisons


» Dota 2-$182,808,811.71
» Fortnite-$17,519,899.24
» League of Legends+$54,238,501.22
» Rainbow Six Siege+$117,820,242.04
» StarCraft II+$121,110,339.62
» Hearthstone+$132,329,075.51
» VALORANT+$136,513,513.18
» CrossFire+$140,999,837.42
» Heroes of the Storm+$143,859,159.95
» Counter-Strike+$148,708,856.23

Top Countries


 Country NamePrize Money
1.Denmark Denmark$23,071,204.76
2.Russian Federation Russian Federation$15,524,861.54
3.United States United States$13,921,917.15
4.Sweden Sweden$12,680,086.62
5.Brazil Brazil$11,928,646.38
6.France France$9,825,144.03
7.Poland Poland$8,369,552.20
8.Ukraine Ukraine$6,054,071.14
9.Canada Canada$5,683,546.79
10.Germany Germany$4,405,655.36

Other Notable Players

The following players may not have necessarily competed in this game, but have contributed to the competitive scene in other ways.

Denmark cadiaNCasper MøllerAnalyst
United Kingdom ddkDan KapadiaCommentator
Sweden FifflarenRobin JohanssonAnalyst
United Kingdom HenryGHenry GreerAnalyst, Commentator
Ukraine JohntaIvan ShevcovAnalyst
Canada laundersMohan GovindasamyCommentator
Belarus leniniwKostya SivkoAnalyst
Finland lurppisTomi KovanenWriter
United Kingdom MantroussePala Gilroy SenAnalyst
United States mOEMohamad AssadAnalyst
United States mosesJason O'TooleAnalyst, Commentator
Finland natuJoona LeppänenAnalyst
United Kingdom PansyLauren ScottCommentator
United Kingdom ReDeYePaul ChalonerHost
United States sapphiReHeather GarozzoObserver
United States SirScootsScott SmithAnalyst, Host
Russian Federation sL4MIgor SopovAnalyst
Ukraine StrikeIurii TereshchenkoAnalyst
Czech Republic StrikerMilan ŠvejdaWriter
Germany TaKeDennis GehlenHost, Tournament Organizer
United States TsquaredTom TaylorHost
Norway vENdettaHalvor GulestølAnalyst
Ukraine xaocAlexey KucherovAnalyst
Serbia YNkJanko PaunovićAnalyst, Commentator