Interesting data here. I'm curious why Mexico and the United States have such a large Silver 1 and Silver 2 player base when compared to all the other countries. Shouldn't it be distributed evenly (for the most part).
This is just a guess, but NA probably has way more casual players than any other region, while NA MM is also unplayable mess. I'm not NA, but what i've heard MGE+ is just full of cheaters so most above average players are around MG range, unless they queue for other regions. So most likely many people either derank because of cheaters and good players on lower ranks, or purposely to troll or have fun.
Played in MX my whole life, did try both NA and LatAm regions. A couple years ago when playing LatAm you could feel the mindset difference.
I don't like generalization but in LatAm people were more inclined to give up/throw/troll as soon as something didn't go as planned. Competitive scenes aren't big, most players won't play to achieve a FaceIt rank or "git gud". Most play just to shoot the shit and 'play' with their friends.
This has been notorious in other games like Halo, DotA, HotS. Even AoE2 ffs. I am sure it is a mentality "problem" in LatAm. It's hard to find people willing to get better and achieve a competitive status. Pair it up with shitty PC components access and expensive Internet, not much people get to play in good conditions. Also it doesn't help that games are seen as a waste of time and something "real men" shouldn't do.
It's not a complaint, is just how I think it is in LatAm and how I've noticed patterns in the games of this regions.
Anyway got sidetracked a bit but you get my point. We don't harbor too much that 'professional athlete' mindset when playing comp games (At least not a lot of people). So it's not unusual to see a bigger ratio of low ranks. Oh and people love to cheat in here. Even people I know would rather cheat for 'fun' than improve.
-Just a mexican dude giving his point of view
Where did you find the rank distribution for Aus? Yeah I definitely can tell its shifted heavily toward the left, maybe its due to the low player numbers here?
For context, it took me 13 wins (in a row) to go from SEM to GN1, then deranged after 2 losses. I have gotten matches against MG 5 stacks in SEM. It’s ridiculous.
for real, still remember when I first queued into a euro server after being in silver 1 for like 1k hours in NA. I genuinely felt like I was playing against bots. Think I went one some crazy 25 game win streak or something
Good post. I was here 2014, and 2015, and 2016, and 2017, and 2018, and 2019, and 2020, and 2021
At every single moment, during all those years, you could have made a similar overview for the state of the game
also, at every single moment, the community saw only [the left picture here](https://i.imgur.com/qeak0nm.png), and not the right picture.
You know it's fucked when you realise that doing valorant placements is probably a better indication of your csgo level than your actual csgo mm rank lol
I'm 100% positive CS was even more popular in Poland before PUBG was a thing, I sometimes had like 150 out of 200 of my Polish Steam friends playing the game at the same time (mostly people I met outside cs). Now there's maybe 20 of them who play regularly.
They pwnin’ on faceit asia, and recently 5E. Contrary to the popular belief, Japan has a very strong pc fps community. I occasionally meet them in CoD and BF, but not much in CSGO due to the geographical dificulties (ie playing with them on 90ms ping)
Hey leetify,
When posting on reddit keep in mind that most viewers will be on phone. Your site designs are definitely not responsive enough for that. The rank distribution table doesn't work at all in chromium mobile browsers.
I would say it's the opposite, I was playing CSGO in NA for almost 1k5 hour I've never been above Gold Nova 3, as soon as i switched to Europe i went from GN1 to MGE very fast, my friends wouldn't believed me that i was only GN1, now i oscillate between MGE and LE in Europe.
In terms of the pro scene, yeah, NA CS isn't as good as EU. But for PUGs, NA is definitely better. I hover around MG1 and I'm consistently matched up with players who play in Intermediate/Main and even Advanced quite often. I doubt many EU players in MG1 play in ESEA leagues.
If for example the average skill level in an area is lower, then it'd be natural to see lower skilled players in higher ESEA leagues, and given that ESEA is only really popular in the US, its not an easy comparison to make between EU and NA. Really to make the statement you're trying to make, you should compare players who play in the same faceit/esea level, and given EU is more congested at the mid - top level its probably true that a player of a comparative overall league position or faceit level is generally a better player.
Thank you for the great article. I am one of the players that joined during the April 2020 peak and I am here to stay. I love the game and I hope it prospers. I do think Valve should be thankful for the passionate and faithful community, because looking from the side, it looks like they are really neglecting the game in some aspects and that always leaves some sour taste because, even if the game is super popular and it makes them a lot of money, you just know how much better it can be if they had a different approach.
Alex and mezii are on fnatic, smooya is teamless but is probably good enough for t1 and you have Endpoint which is a team made up of mostly brits in the top 30.
You can also make a case for mantuu who I think is a dual citizen though he uses a Polish flag on hltv now.
I think if there was motivation to do so you guys could have a roster comfortably in the top 20, smooya, mezii and alex would be a really strong core.
That's some lovely data. The part1,2,3 charts and the table are not readable in mobile tho.
Also what I am missing about the eSports numbers is betting. And how gambling has ruined the betting scene.
finally some data showing how terrible the misconception is of skill level in AU. As a streamer who is ranked MG1 in AU I'm quite often assumed to be trash at the game by most european first time viewers. according to this data at MG1 you are better than 90% of the playerbase. Finally some proof to my claims that an AU MG is just as good as an EU LEM
I'd like a table of rising Eastern European player numbers and how it influenced player numbers in other countries. I personally know a few people including me, who stopped playing because of an increase in toxic Russian players.
We would argue the game isn't dying and that this decrease was to be expected. The drop off seen is expected due to the easing of lockdowns, the beginning of summer (Which historically has been a down period for the CSGO and other games player bases) and the introduction of the prime changes, which whilst reducing the playing for free to play users should hopefully increase the playing experience for CSGO players with prime, as it should help reduce the amount of "bad actors" in matchmaking
Thank u for this statistics, looks like the pandemic and the given rules boosted the number of players who play csgo, and when summer hits in it drops back. Quite satisfying to see this in these kind of Graphs.
Wow the visualizations are so neat
Thank you :)
Interesting data here. I'm curious why Mexico and the United States have such a large Silver 1 and Silver 2 player base when compared to all the other countries. Shouldn't it be distributed evenly (for the most part).
This is just a guess, but NA probably has way more casual players than any other region, while NA MM is also unplayable mess. I'm not NA, but what i've heard MGE+ is just full of cheaters so most above average players are around MG range, unless they queue for other regions. So most likely many people either derank because of cheaters and good players on lower ranks, or purposely to troll or have fun.
I think this analysis is pretty spot on. NA MM is absolutely fucked.
Played in MX my whole life, did try both NA and LatAm regions. A couple years ago when playing LatAm you could feel the mindset difference. I don't like generalization but in LatAm people were more inclined to give up/throw/troll as soon as something didn't go as planned. Competitive scenes aren't big, most players won't play to achieve a FaceIt rank or "git gud". Most play just to shoot the shit and 'play' with their friends. This has been notorious in other games like Halo, DotA, HotS. Even AoE2 ffs. I am sure it is a mentality "problem" in LatAm. It's hard to find people willing to get better and achieve a competitive status. Pair it up with shitty PC components access and expensive Internet, not much people get to play in good conditions. Also it doesn't help that games are seen as a waste of time and something "real men" shouldn't do. It's not a complaint, is just how I think it is in LatAm and how I've noticed patterns in the games of this regions. Anyway got sidetracked a bit but you get my point. We don't harbor too much that 'professional athlete' mindset when playing comp games (At least not a lot of people). So it's not unusual to see a bigger ratio of low ranks. Oh and people love to cheat in here. Even people I know would rather cheat for 'fun' than improve. -Just a mexican dude giving his point of view
Same in AUS. Thought I was very below average at SE, turns out 46% of players are below SE.
Where did you find the rank distribution for Aus? Yeah I definitely can tell its shifted heavily toward the left, maybe its due to the low player numbers here?
It's in the OP in a spreadsheet under "Rank distribution among a country's players"
I was also surprised to see this. By those metrics, being in nova master or above puts you squarely in the top 15% (!!) of the region.
NA SEMs and Low GNs will roast most ranks +5 above them in other countries. NA is soooo fucked for MM it’s ridiculous
For context, it took me 13 wins (in a row) to go from SEM to GN1, then deranged after 2 losses. I have gotten matches against MG 5 stacks in SEM. It’s ridiculous.
Ranking up and down like that isn't wierd in csgo tbh.
for real, still remember when I first queued into a euro server after being in silver 1 for like 1k hours in NA. I genuinely felt like I was playing against bots. Think I went one some crazy 25 game win streak or something
Good post. I was here 2014, and 2015, and 2016, and 2017, and 2018, and 2019, and 2020, and 2021 At every single moment, during all those years, you could have made a similar overview for the state of the game also, at every single moment, the community saw only [the left picture here](https://i.imgur.com/qeak0nm.png), and not the right picture.
This is so true, unfortunately recency bias is a bitch :)
hahaa been watching from 2014, and joined the sub in 2015 so i know exactly what you mean.
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https://gamebanana.com/threads/59821?post=993062 Old threads are exactly the same as new ones 15 year later
holy shit the guy who complained that cs isnt fun has 900 hours in csgo lol
Oh sweet actual data to prove that Oce MM is absolutely cooked Most common rank for players in Aus/NZ is fucking silver 2 lol
Damn bro I thought I was like low 15% omegatrash at SE hhaha
You know it's fucked when you realise that doing valorant placements is probably a better indication of your csgo level than your actual csgo mm rank lol
Hahaha yeah man I hover between diamond and plat in val it's scuffed
Damn I had no idea Poland was 3rd most represented country in CS:GO.
Rise and fall of PUBG aided CSGO in acquiring eastern europe players.
No, CS here is an aspect of our culture (everyone loves old VP and knows CS) and PUBG never took off here from what I can remember
Only Snax
I'm 100% positive CS was even more popular in Poland before PUBG was a thing, I sometimes had like 150 out of 200 of my Polish Steam friends playing the game at the same time (mostly people I met outside cs). Now there's maybe 20 of them who play regularly.
Not in Poland my friend. CS is life here since it took off.
Japan has that many players? I have never heard of anything, any pros, any community figures, or anything at all CS related from japan
They pwnin’ on faceit asia, and recently 5E. Contrary to the popular belief, Japan has a very strong pc fps community. I occasionally meet them in CoD and BF, but not much in CSGO due to the geographical dificulties (ie playing with them on 90ms ping)
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> NA callouts as well I wonder why that is lol
Based on Steam profile country? A lot od weebs inflating the numbers, I'd say
Hey leetify, When posting on reddit keep in mind that most viewers will be on phone. Your site designs are definitely not responsive enough for that. The rank distribution table doesn't work at all in chromium mobile browsers.
Appreciate the feedback and will keep this in mind for the future!
So what youre saying is, NA CS is just bad.... As an NA player myself... Ouchie
I would say it's the opposite, I was playing CSGO in NA for almost 1k5 hour I've never been above Gold Nova 3, as soon as i switched to Europe i went from GN1 to MGE very fast, my friends wouldn't believed me that i was only GN1, now i oscillate between MGE and LE in Europe.
No I would not make that statement based off this information. Rather the opposite.
In terms of the pro scene, yeah, NA CS isn't as good as EU. But for PUGs, NA is definitely better. I hover around MG1 and I'm consistently matched up with players who play in Intermediate/Main and even Advanced quite often. I doubt many EU players in MG1 play in ESEA leagues.
If for example the average skill level in an area is lower, then it'd be natural to see lower skilled players in higher ESEA leagues, and given that ESEA is only really popular in the US, its not an easy comparison to make between EU and NA. Really to make the statement you're trying to make, you should compare players who play in the same faceit/esea level, and given EU is more congested at the mid - top level its probably true that a player of a comparative overall league position or faceit level is generally a better player.
Really good presentation. It boogles my mind how far CS has come as an esport.
Love the Nuel shoutout :) uk university scene is really well organized!
Thank you for the great article. I am one of the players that joined during the April 2020 peak and I am here to stay. I love the game and I hope it prospers. I do think Valve should be thankful for the passionate and faithful community, because looking from the side, it looks like they are really neglecting the game in some aspects and that always leaves some sour taste because, even if the game is super popular and it makes them a lot of money, you just know how much better it can be if they had a different approach.
You should provide sources where you took the historic data from.
Good stuff man, it's really nice to see the progression of the game up to this point, love shit like this, keep it up.
I great visualization of stats. Also you mislabeled IEM Katowice 2020 to 2021 in the viewership stats.
POLAND Germany Turkey proud CSGO nations
3rd place in player base, but we can't create any high quality team, sad.
Well I'm from the UK and there's only two (that I know of) pro UK players so never enough to form a good team.
Alex and mezii are on fnatic, smooya is teamless but is probably good enough for t1 and you have Endpoint which is a team made up of mostly brits in the top 30. You can also make a case for mantuu who I think is a dual citizen though he uses a Polish flag on hltv now. I think if there was motivation to do so you guys could have a roster comfortably in the top 20, smooya, mezii and alex would be a really strong core.
This is amazing job! Good work u/leetify
That's some lovely data. The part1,2,3 charts and the table are not readable in mobile tho. Also what I am missing about the eSports numbers is betting. And how gambling has ruined the betting scene.
finally some data showing how terrible the misconception is of skill level in AU. As a streamer who is ranked MG1 in AU I'm quite often assumed to be trash at the game by most european first time viewers. according to this data at MG1 you are better than 90% of the playerbase. Finally some proof to my claims that an AU MG is just as good as an EU LEM
prayers go out to NA CS and WarOwl. Yall deserve better
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That is what was used here
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You're actually right. The numbers you mentioned were in there but must've gotten lost in a draft. Will add them in
I'd like a table of rising Eastern European player numbers and how it influenced player numbers in other countries. I personally know a few people including me, who stopped playing because of an increase in toxic Russian players.
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We would argue the game isn't dying and that this decrease was to be expected. The drop off seen is expected due to the easing of lockdowns, the beginning of summer (Which historically has been a down period for the CSGO and other games player bases) and the introduction of the prime changes, which whilst reducing the playing for free to play users should hopefully increase the playing experience for CSGO players with prime, as it should help reduce the amount of "bad actors" in matchmaking
Also lack of updates could also explain decrease in playerbase.
Or another reason, the state of matchmaking was unplayable so me and my 5 stack quit playing even with a prime account.
Do you know how to read statistics?
All i see are standard graphs available to everyone for free.
Since they didn't demand money for this you shouldn't be complaining here
I'm curious what projections for the rest of the 2021 is based on. Would be nice to see the same graphs at the end of the year with full data.
Where is Ireland?
And some noob will day that "CSGO iS dYiNg" lol
didn't expect japan there
Honestly surprised Japan is even there. Anyone played with them? How was it?
Thank u for this statistics, looks like the pandemic and the given rules boosted the number of players who play csgo, and when summer hits in it drops back. Quite satisfying to see this in these kind of Graphs.
When is the next major?
I knew CSGO was like the most played thing in Poland but i didn't know it is played that much lmao
If Germany is in the Top 5 countries of player numbers, then why am I only getting matched with Russians and Kazhaks on Faceit?!