F2P Team Fortress 2 Dethrones Counter-Strike

[Shawn Zipay]

Technically, Team Fortress 2 had surpassed Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Source as the most played game on Steam a few days back. But this weekend was the true test of how badly TF2 would be the CS juggernaut.

Yep, 97,917 TF2 players compared to the 65,420 and 55,351 for Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Source respectively. Yes, these are the max players but the current player counts (as of this post) still show identical comparisons. Granted, the combined total for just those two Counter-Strike games (120,771) still surpasses the max for Team Fortress 2, but it's still quite amazing.

Behold, the power of making a game permanently Free 2 Play! Now, let's see if the game can keep the momentum for years upon years upon years as Counter-Strike once did.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: F2P Team Fortress 2 Dethrones Counter-Strike

Naw, people are trying it out. They will see its not Counter Strike and go back. Thats how it always happens. I give it a month tops before CS is back on top.

Crunch

[Shawn Zipay]

I don't think that any of the other "free weekends" resulted in this though. And certainly not sustained like it has been.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: F2P Team Fortress 2 Dethrones Counter-Strike

Thats true and maybe this is the game that could do it. Its something never before seen before, but if I know CS players, they will be back.

I mean, just look at Kyle, that guy is a freak. An entire army of him is out there, in TF2 land right now, missing their AWP and body armor that does nothing.

Crunch

[Unregistered]

Just so you guys are aware, Portal 2 was over 90,000 for about 4 straight days when it launched. Black Ops and MW2 have both been ahead of CS as well. It's not like no other game has ever surpassed it. Give CS a week and we'll see if TF2 is still on top.

[K-16]

I'm surprised not enough people are playing Team Fortress Classic to even be on the Steam stat list. I originally wanted to compare player counts between Team Fortress and Counter-Strike, when both GoldSrc and Source versions for both franchises are taken into account, thinking Team Fortress would be higher. But it looks like Counter-Strike is still higher since apparently TFC's numbers are negligible.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: F2P Team Fortress 2 Dethrones Counter-Strike

Just so you guys are aware, Portal 2 was over 90,000 for about 4 straight days when it launched. Black Ops and MW2 have both been ahead of CS as well. It's not like no other game has ever surpassed it. Give CS a week and we'll see if TF2 is still on top.

Thats true as well, except this is a "free" game vs. AAA purchased titles. Thats saying something. TF2 also had a strong fanbase to begin with that has now grown WAY more because of this.

Crunch

[Unregistered]

This also coincides with a major TF2 release that saw new weapons for almost eveyr class. New hats. A new map. Those things alone would get a lot of former players/players that hadn't played in a while to load it up and see what's going on.

Yes the free userbase will add a lot of people, but saying it's surpassed CS right now a handful of days after it happened is a bit silly. In a week, two weeks time, see if it's still ahead.

(Same Unregistered psoter as before.)

[Nya`]

The numbers will drop back down to the 30-40k range given another week. What people need to realize is 99% of the people playing it right now are ones who have already been on Steam, chances are if you didn't already own it your interest in it is not going to sustain. It has been on sale for $2.50 and $5.00 more times than I can count plus several free weekends and if you didn't get it then chances are you won't stick with it even as a free game.