Counter-Strike turns 26

On this day twenty-six years back, a Half-Life mod was released to the public in beta. A mod which added guns to the game along with an objective; this went on to become one of the most decorated first-person shooters ever made- Counter-Strike. Countless games have and are still trying to replicate Counter-Strike but have become mere bootleg copies of a masterpiece.

To pay tribute to its longevity and its ability to easily captivate audiences generation after generation, ESL posted a short video on X illustrating the journey of Counter-Strike's visuals. This video shows a T-side model walking in front of Dust2's double-doors in middle across all Counter-Strike iterations.

Despite a crippling cheater problem and lack of consistent content updates in Counter-Strike 2, the community showers the game with love, turning up in massive numbers to play the game, turning up in massive numbers at tournament venues and tuning in from across the globe, breaking viewership records, setting a new peak every other tournament.

Happy birthday Counter-Strike.