CS:GO is a first-person shooter which premiered in 2012 on most eSport platforms – however, it gained its notable popularity amongst PC gamers.

Although there are hundreds of games to choose from, with increasingly jaw-dropping video graphics and across multiple platforms – there are just some games that never go out of fashion and CS:GO is one of them.

According to Statista, the estimated cumulative prize pool for pro league tournaments in 2021 was 21.17 million dollars (just under 320 million rands) – which was the largest prize pool last year in professional eSports.

With that in mind, these are my 3 reasons why CS:GO is still so popular today:

Learning how to play the game is a breeze

Whether you are accustomed to shooter games or a newbie, it is quite easy to understand how the game works. The maps are small and easy to learn, each weapon has a purpose and it’s easy to get the hang of them in no time.

All you need to do is learn where players are likely to come from and be on the map, practice your aiming, the shooting patterns of each weapon, and soon it will come as second nature as you continue to play.

Fun and competitive gameplay

The game includes a wide variety of maps that are completely different from one to the next – with different entry points, bomb sites and holding positions. Play 5v5 in competitive matchmaking with or without your friends that are matched based on your skill level (rank) and the team with the best of 30 rounds wins. You can also buy and sell colourful and wacky “skins” for your weapons and agents (characters) on the steam market – which allows you to stick out from the rest and individualise your loadout.

CS:GO has low system requirements

You don’t have to spend thousands of rands on a gaming laptop or PC to enjoy playing the game to the fullest. The game can run comfortably on the average, relatively new, laptop or PC.

System requirements:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6600 2.4 GHz or AMD Phenom X3 8750 2.4 GHz processor.
• GPU: Any video card with 256 MB of VRAM or higher.
• RAM: 2 GB of memory.
• HDD: 15 GB of free space.
• OS: Windows XP or higher operating system.
• DirectX: 9.0c or higher.
• Shader Model: 3.0 or higher.

Now, we need to address one issue with the game that many are familiar with if they’ve played a fair amount of CS:GO – and that’s hackers. Unfortunately, the developer Valve hasn’t come up with a solid way of keeping the cheaters out.

However, with time, the more you play without cheating or cheaters on your team, the better your trust factor will become. This means that the higher your trust factor is, the less likely you are to match with a cheater.

That said, all games have the issue of cheaters so give CS:GO a shot! and it will be easy to see why some still choose to play it over games such as Fortnite, Overwatch and even Call of Duty: Warzone.

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