With the official release of Counter-Strike 2, Valve removed CS:GO from Steam. Despite this, there are still ways to download and run a stable version of CS:GO. In this article, we will explain how to play CS:GO in 2025.

On January 1, 2024, Valve officially ended support for CS:GO. However, the abundance of cheaters in CS2 matchmaking and the lack of good optimization make gamers nostalgic for the previous version of the shooter.

How to Download and Play CS:GO in 2025

• Open Steam.
• Go to the “Library.”
• Right-click on CS2 and open the settings menu.
• Select “Betas.”
• In the top right corner, where it says “None” by default, choose "Legacy Version of CS:GO."
• Once selected, the game will download automatically.

• After this, navigate to your drive:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo and in the steam.inf file, change the "ClientVersion" field to 2000258.
• Launch Counter-Strike 2, but before starting, choose "Legacy Version of CS:GO."
• Connect to custom servers and play.

Where to Find Custom Servers for CS:GO

You can find decent 5vs5 matches on the “popflash” service. Keep in mind that this is a third-party product not associated with Valve, and we cannot guarantee the safety of your Steam account. Proceed at your own risk.

The official release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive took place on August 21, 2012. This version of the shooter from Valve was supported for 11 years. During this period, various cosmetic items, mechanics, and maps were added to the game.