Live Steam player count comparison, updated every 10 minutes. Both are Action games.
PAYDAY 2 is currently the more played game: 14,620 concurrent players on Steam right now vs 11,688 for Counter-Strike — about 25% more players. Counter-Strike counters with better Steam reviews: 97% positive vs 89%. Across all tracked metrics, PAYDAY 2 leads 8 of 10.
Coilr tracks charts like this for every game — and playtime history for your own library.
Tracked by Coilr since April 2026 · Steam polled every 10 minutes · methodology
PAYDAY 2 has had the higher daily player count for the last 56 days — every day since Coilr began tracking both games.
Days tracked
56
Current streak
56 days
PAYDAY 2
Lead changes
0
Closest gap
63%
Aug 2, 2026
How this works: each game's daily average concurrent players (from Coilr's 10-minute Steam polls), compared on the 56 days where both games have data — whichever averages higher leads that day. methodology
| Metric | Counter-Strike | PAYDAY 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Players right now | 11,688 | 14,620 |
| 24-hour peak | 11,775 | 28,867 |
| 7-day average | 7,899 | 27,523 |
| 30-day average | 7,961 | 29,804 |
| 30-day trend | ±0% | +2% |
| Peak (tracked) | 12,838 | 36,219 |
| Steam reviews | 97% positive | 89% positive |
| Recent reviews (3 mo) | 94% positive | 90% positive |
| Total reviews | 260,940 | 673,792 |
| Owners (SteamSpy est.) | ~10,000,000 | ~20,000,000 |
| Release date | Nov 1, 2000 | Aug 13, 2013 |
| Price | $9.99 | $9.99 |
Full stats: Counter-Strike · PAYDAY 2 · add more games to this comparison →
| Month | Counter-Strike | PAYDAY 2 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg | Peak | Avg | Peak | |
| Apr 2026 | — | — | 16,764 | 26,468 |
| May 2026 | 11,355 | 11,957 | 25,803 | 33,915 |
| Jun 2026 | 8,005 | 12,838 | 28,999 | 35,496 |
| Jul 2026 | 7,934 | 12,803 | 30,152 | 36,219 |
| Aug 2026 (so far) | 8,366 | 11,775 | 24,559 | 32,281 |
Monthly average and peak concurrent players on Steam, from Coilr's own tracking (10-minute polls, hourly beyond 30 days).
PAYDAY 2 currently has more players: 14,620 concurrent players on Steam vs 11,688 for Counter-Strike — about 25% more players.
Over the last 30 days Counter-Strike averaged 7,961 concurrent players and PAYDAY 2 averaged 29,804. By that measure PAYDAY 2 is currently the bigger game.
Not in Coilr's head-to-head tracking: PAYDAY 2 has had the higher daily average concurrent player count on Steam on every one of the 56 days both games have been tracked.
By Steam review score, Counter-Strike rates higher: 97% positive across 260,940 reviews vs 89% across 673,792 for PAYDAY 2. PAYDAY 2 has the larger player base right now (14,620 vs 11,688 concurrent). Player counts, ratings, price and trend are compared side by side above.
Counter-Strike averaged 7,961 concurrent players over the last 30 days, roughly flat vs the previous 30 days. Its highest tracked player count is 12,838.
PAYDAY 2 averaged 29,804 concurrent players over the last 30 days, roughly flat vs the previous 30 days. Its highest tracked player count is 36,219.