Steam Just Revived Its Biggest Ever Free Game, Yours To Keep Now

2 hours ago 1

Published Mar 4, 2026, 6:02 AM EST

James is a gaming writer from London who has spent thousands of hours exploring titles from every genre. Though he has a particular affinity for multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft, Destiny 2 and League of Legends, he has also put thousands of hours into single-player experiences, from deep RPGs to epic PC strategies. When he's not playing or writing, he can usually be found supporting his beloved Brentford FC.

Few game series have ever captured the public imagination and maintained an audience as significant as Counter Strike, with millions of players logging in every day to take out enemy squads across several action-packed maps.

If you go and look at the Steam statistics on any given day, you'll see that Counter-Strike 2 is some distance clear of the next most played game, regularly surpassing one million concurrent players, far beyond a peak that most games would ever dream of.

Before the sequel, the same was true for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), and that game being removed from the Steam storefront for the sequel was a highly controversial move at the time, even if it has paid off in spades since. Now, the OG tactical FPS is back, and you can download and play it with the community right now.

Steam's Biggest Ever Free Game Is Back

Two players fire at one another in Counter-Strike Global Offensive

As first reported by Dot Esports, if you head over to Steam right now, you should be able to find that the store page for CS:GO is back, allowing players to download it and jump online once again.

Once installed, it will go into your library as a separate game like any other, available to play whenever you wish. It's a hugely exciting development for those who were around at the time and wished the game wasn't entirely replaced by the sequel, but there is a caveat that you should be aware of before jumping in.

Though Valve has made the game available to play once again, they haven't brought official servers back online in any way. Whilst that doesn't mean you have to play sad solo games against bots, you will either have to join community servers or start unlisted games for yourself and friends.

That said, the game has drawn in a huge number of players since appearing back on Steam, with more than 27,500 playing at the time of writing, many of whom are hosting busy servers for keen operatives to play on, so you shouldn't struggle to find a match.

This Is A Huge Deal For CS:GO Fans

A player fires a machine gun in Counter Strike Global Offensive

It's difficult to overstate just how big of a deal this is for fans of CS:GO. Over on Reddit, under a post sharing the news, hundreds gathered to share just how delighted they are.

"Cool, I was just reminiscing about my time playing it earlier today. While CS2 was certainly a nice visual upgrade, I didn't like that they removed Arms Race, which was my favourite mode," one comment read.

"CS:GO is so much better than CS2 man. Shots feel so crisp, instant feedback, spraying is better, awping is better, HUD is better, and 128 tick on FACEIT," another added.

Counter-Strike being brought back in this way is a huge boost for a community that still adores it to this day. They also wouldn't have done it if they were planning to take it away again any time soon, so let's hope it'll serve as a nostalgic place for players to return to for years to come.