Counter-Strike 2
Released 27 September 2023 Developer Valve
A first-person tactical shooter in which two teams, terrorists and counter-terrorists, play short rounds with limited money to buy weapons, either planting a bomb or defusing it. It is a competitive, realistic-looking shooter with ranked matchmaking, and it is aimed at older teens and adults.
Money health
HarmfulChance, compulsion or exploitation
Addictive design
Very high5 of 5 — counts the hooks designed in
Average price
FreeSteam (AU)
Spending ceiling
No ceilingRepeat purchases, no limit
Australian rating
Strong violence, mild themes (rating shown on the Australian Steam page)
How it makes money
Harmful: chance, compulsion or exploitation
Counter-Strike 2 is free to play, and replaced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (itself free since December 2018) in September 2023. Valve makes money from cosmetic weapon skins, stickers and charms: players pay for keys to open weapon cases for a random item, buy and sell skins on the Steam Community Market, or buy an Armory Pass. The A$21.25 Prime Status Upgrade unlocks Premier matchmaking. Cases themselves sell for cents (the Fracture Case was A$0.72 on the Market on 22 October 2026), but each opening needs a key from Valve, and rare skins resell for hundreds or thousands of dollars.
How you pay
- Loot boxes
Weapon cases hold random weapon skins and are opened with a paid key. Eurogamer and Dot Esports estimated about US$1 billion in loot box revenue in 2023, with more than 400 million cases opened. Valve disabled case opening in Belgium and the Netherlands in 2018.
- Free-to-play
Free to play on Steam. The Prime Status Upgrade (A$21.25, non-refundable) unlocks Premier mode and weekly rewards; everything else is sold as cosmetics.
- Cash trading
Skins can be sold to other players on the Steam Community Market for Steam Wallet funds, or traded to outside sites. New York's Attorney General says the Counter-Strike skin market had passed US$4.3 billion by March 2025 and cites a single item sale above US$1 million.
- Battle pass
The Armory (from October 2024) sells an Armory Pass; playing and earning XP with an active pass earns Armory Credits, which are redeemed for set weapon, sticker and charm collections.
minor part of the game - Cosmetics
Skins, stickers, charms and graffiti change how things look but do not affect play; they are the main thing the game sells.
Techniques it uses to keep you paying or playing
- Skin betting
Counter-Strike skins are used as chips on third-party gambling websites. Valve sent cease-and-desist letters to 23 such sites in July 2016, and in 2023 banned more than 40 accounts and locked over US$2 million in items, but New York's Attorney General sued Valve in February 2026, alleging it facilitates third-party sites that pay cash for items.
- Slot-machine
Opening a case plays a spinning-reel animation that lands on the prize. New York's Attorney General says this resembles a slot machine and that Valve sets the odds so some items are much harder to win.
minor part of the game - Made scarce
The best skins are deliberately very rare outcomes of a case opening, which is what makes them valuable to resell.
minor part of the game - Held back
Premier mode, the main ranked matchmaking, requires the A$21.25 Prime Status Upgrade.
minor part of the game - Daily pressure
Players with Prime Status earn a weekly care package by gaining XP, choosing two rewards from four, which resets each week.
minor part of the game
Fairer alternatives
Similar games with a healthier money model
What it costs
Free to start, then A$0.72–A$21.25 a purchase
| What | Where | Price | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Counter-Strike 2 Free to play |
Steam (AU) · PC | Free | Oct 2026 |
| Prime Status Upgrade Unlocks Premier matchmaking; non-refundable |
Steam (AU) · PC | A$21.25 | Oct 2026 |
| Fracture Case (lowest listing) Player-set market price for one case; opening it also needs a key bought from Valve. Some older cases sell for A$10 or more. |
Steam Community Market (AU) · PC | A$0.72 | Oct 2026 |
Store prices change often and sales are common; we record the regular price on the date shown.
Reviews from across the web
What the critics said
-
4/ 5
-
8/ 10
-
9/ 10
-
4/ 5
Scores belong to the outlets that published them; follow the links to read the full reviews. Summaries are ours.
Age ratings & content
What's in it
Content labels
- Violencestrong
Fighting, weapons, injury and death, from cartoon bonks to realistic killing.
From ACB and USK descriptors - Mature themesmild
Crime, cruelty, death, suicide and self-harm, discrimination, and crude humour.
From ACB descriptors
Classification
Age ratings judge content (violence, language, gambling themes), summed up in the content labels above. They say little about how hard a game pushes spending — that's what the money badges are for. About rating boards
Safety & parental controls
Who can talk to your child, and what can they buy?
- Text and voice chat
- Players can interact with strangers
- Contains user-made content (not pre-checked by the developer)
- Needs an online account
- Terms of service minimum age: 13
Matchmaking puts players in teams with strangers, with open text and voice chat that can be muted. Players can also join community servers run by third parties, and maps and skins made by the community are distributed through the Steam Workshop. Steam's subscriber agreement requires users to be at least 13. The skin economy is the main risk for children: items have real-world value, can be sold, and are promoted on outside gambling sites.
Who makes it
The company behind it, and its track record
- Loot-box action
Loot-box enforcement
Belgian Gaming Commission, April 2018: found paid Counter-Strike: Global Offensive loot boxes were in breach of Belgian gambling law. - Misleading ads
Misleading-marketing action
Federal Court of Australia ordered Valve to pay A$3 million in December 2016 for misrepresenting Australian consumers' refund rights on Steam. - Competition law
Competition-law action
European Commission fined Valve €1,624,000 in January 2021 for geo-blocking PC games; the EU General Court upheld the decision in 2023.
Latest on the record
- Court case
Brazilian first-instance court ordered R$10 million in loot-box damages, subject to appeal
Brazil Ministry of Justice and Public Security (Technical Note 55/2026) - Regulator action
New York Attorney General sued Valve alleging its loot boxes are illegal gambling
New York State Attorney General - Court case
UK tribunal allowed £656 million collective claim over Steam pricing to proceed
Competition Appeal Tribunal
A company's history doesn't change this game's money verdict, which rates only how the game itself makes money. About company track records
Platforms & release
Where you can play it
| Platform | Released | Store |
|---|---|---|
| Windows PC Replaced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012) on Steam as a free upgrade |
27 September 2023 | Store page |
| Linux / Steam Deck | 27 September 2023 | Store page |
Further reading
- Official website
- New York Attorney General sues Valve over loot boxes in Counter-Strike, Team Fortress and Dota (25 Feb 2026)
- Skin gambling on Wikipedia
- Counter-Strike 2 on Wikipedia
- Wikipedia
Facts last checked 22 October 2026. Sources: store.steampowered.com, store.steampowered.com, en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org, ag.ny.gov, api.steampowered.com, store.steampowered.com, steamcommunity.com, www.metacritic.com, opencritic.com. Spotted something wrong? Send a correction.