When is CS:GO Source 2 coming out? cover image

When is CS:GO Source 2 coming out?

Valve has confirmed Counter-Strike 2 and has announced when the game will release. Here’s what we know.

One of the oldest communities in the esports scene, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's fans are excited at the moment due to all rumors regarding a big update in the engine of the FPS. But, when does CS:GO Source 2 will come out?

Update March 22:

Valve has confirmed CS:GO 2 is coming out in Summer 2023.

For a long time, a so-called Counter-Strike was a bit of a tale between players. But, at the beginning of March, the story came a little closer to becoming truth as data miners release a lot of info pointing out a massive update coming to Valve's FPS.

Catch a live update of all CS:GO Source 2 news in our CSGO 2 news hub.

When will CS:GO 2 come out?

According to journalist Richard Lewis, the beta of Source 2 will arrive on April 1st. Last Tuesday, data miners Gabefollower and Aquarius confirmed that the launch of a test version is near and showed that files of the new engine are already being uploaded to the Steam database.

Besides leaking some of the files that were uploaded, Aquarius went further and made a parallel with Dota 2 update, that happened in 2015. According to him, probably Steam will receive ongoing files and updates regarding Source 2, until its launch. If Valve follows the procedure done with Dota, the new Counter-Strike may arrive in April.

Is important to say that until the writing of this publication, the only thing confirmed is that Counter-Strike is receiving a lot of assets and files in the Steam database. Valve has not come publicly to say anything about Source 2 or any big updates coming to CS:GO.

What is Source 2?

Source is the graphic engine in which the Counter-Strike runs. The current one was launched in 2004 and CS:GO was built upon it. Just like Epic Games has Unreal Engine to develop and run Fortnite, Valve has Source.

A graphic engine works to facilitate the developer's job, once it already brings some pre-conceived rules and limitations. Since the current engine, Source 1, is from almost 20 years ago, the limitations are many, mostly in terms of optimization.

One of the main concerns of the community is about the performance that a new upgraded game will have on older PCs. Ironically, that is one of the things that Source 2 will help. Since it will be a new graphic engine, is expected that it will run things smoothly and in a more optimized way.

While Source 2 doesn't arrive for CS:GO, check out which maps from the game may be going to the new engine.

Stay tuned to esports for the latest CS:GO news and updates.