The Counter-Strike franchise, born from the humble origins of a Half-Life mod in 1999, revolutionized the world of multiplayer shooters: it was a free game developed by Minh 'Gooseman' Le and Jess 'Cliffe' Cliffe, which set the tone for intense team play pitting Terrorists against Counter-Terrorists on the other side. They made possible the birth of what would later become the competitive esports genre.
Valve took over the rights and officialized the Counter-Strike 1.6 version in 2003, a true bible of LAN parties and tournaments of all kinds, followed by Counter-Strike: Source (2004) which offered modernized graphics on the Source engine, up to the sensation Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO 2012) which transformed the franchise's popularity thanks to a free-to-play model, as well as cosmetic skins, with a peak of over one million simultaneous players. Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) succeeds CS:GO in 2023, on Source 2, with remastered visuals, interactive volumetric smoke, and reworked physics, in continuity with the original engine.
Games in the Counter-Strike franchise