When Valve rolled out Counter-Strike 2 as a free replacement for CSGO in every Steam user’s library, thousands of long-time players were caught off guard. Many spent hundreds or even thousands of hours mastering CSGO’s recoil patterns, collecting rare skins, and playing custom community modes that hadn’t been ported to the new Source 2 engine. If you’re one of those players who’s found CS2’s changes jarring, or you just want to revisit old maps with friends, you’ve probably asked: can you play CSGO after CS2? I’ve put over 1,400 hours into CSGO since 2017, and I’ve tested every method of accessing the old client since CS2 launched, so I’ll walk you through exactly what works, what doesn’t, and if it’s worth your time.
Exactly How You Can Play CSGO After CS2 Right Now
The good news is that Valve hasn’t completely removed CSGO from Steam, despite it being replaced by CS2 as the default download. The company released an official legacy version of CSGO for players who want to access older content, and it only takes a few clicks to install. First, open your Steam library and find Counter-Strike 2 in your list of games. Right click it, select “Properties,” then navigate to the “Betas” tab in the pop-up window. From the dropdown menu, select the “csgo_legacy” option, and Steam will automatically start downloading the old CSGO client. This official legacy client is completely VAC-safe, so you won’t risk losing your Steam account or inventory for accessing it.
If you had CSGO installed on your device before CS2 launched, the legacy download will only be a small update around 2GB, since most of the core game files are already stored on your hard drive. If you’re a new player who never installed CSGO before, you’ll have to download the full 15GB client, which is still much smaller than CS2’s 30GB+ install size. Once the download finishes, launching Counter-Strike 2 from your library will give you the option to play either CS2 or the legacy CSGO client every time, so you don’t have to re-adjust settings every time you want to switch.
Do note that official matchmaking for CSGO was shut down shortly after CS2’s full launch, so you won’t be able to queue for official competitive or casual matches through the legacy client. But that doesn’t mean there’s no multiplayer content available, far from it. If you’re still wondering if you can play CSGO after CS2 without any account risks, the answer is yes, as long as you stick to the official Steam legacy client.
What Content and Progress Carries Over to Legacy CSGO
One of the biggest concerns players have when switching to the legacy client is whether their years of progress and expensive skins will still work. The short answer is most of your core content carries over, with a few small exceptions. All your CSGO skins, stickers, and collectibles work exactly the same in the legacy client, since all inventory data is tied to your Steam account, not the specific game version you’re using. You can still trade, inspect, and use all your existing CSGO skins in community servers exactly as you could before CS2 launched.
There are a few things that won’t transfer between the two games, though. Your CS2 competitive rank won’t carry over to legacy CSGO, and your old CSGO rank was frozen the day CS2 launched, so you won’t be able to climb it anymore. Any new skins released exclusively for CS2 won’t work in the legacy client, since they’re designed for the Source 2 engine’s upgraded rendering. Your playtime in legacy CSGO also won’t count towards any CS2 event challenges or battle pass progress, so you’ll have to log into CS2 to unlock those rewards.
If you’re wondering what you can do in legacy CSGO that you can’t in CS2, here’s a quick breakdown of the biggest draws:
- Play fan-favorite maps that were removed from CS2, including Cache, Train, and the original version of Office that many casual players loved
- Join thousands of custom community servers for game modes like surf, kz, deathrun, and custom 1v1 arenas that haven’t been ported to CS2 yet
- Use old CSGO configs and autoexec files that don’t function properly in CS2’s updated engine, which is a big plus for players who spent years tweaking their settings
- Play in offline mode with no internet connection without needing to verify CS2’s new anti-cheat requirements that often block offline play for users with unstable connections
Pros and Cons of Sticking to Legacy CSGO Instead of CS2
Before you decide to ditch CS2 entirely for the legacy client, it’s important to weigh the upsides and downsides, since Valve is no longer updating CSGO long term. The biggest upside for many players is performance: legacy CSGO runs far more smoothly on older hardware, with none of the sudden frame drops or stuttering that are common in early CS2 patches. If you’re playing on a laptop or a budget PC that can’t hit 60fps in CS2, the legacy client will let you keep playing without spending hundreds on a hardware upgrade. You also won’t have to relearn CS2’s adjusted recoil patterns, which was a big point of frustration for many high-skill CSGO players when the new game launched.
There are some pretty big downsides to consider too, though. As we mentioned earlier, there’s no official matchmaking for legacy CSGO, so all competitive play has to happen on community servers, which vary widely in anti-cheat quality and rule sets. You also won’t get any new content updates: Valve is only adding new maps, skins, and events to CS2, so legacy CSGO will stay exactly as it was the day CS2 launched, forever. You risk being locked out of future CS2 in-game events if you only play legacy CSGO long term, since many limited-time rewards are tied to playtime or challenge completion in CS2.
VAC is still fully active on the legacy CSGO client, so you still need to avoid any third-party mods or cheats that could trigger a ban, just like you would in CS2. Bans applied to either client will carry over to your entire Steam account, so you don’t get any extra leeway for playing the legacy version.
Is It Worth Playing CSGO After CS2 for Most Players?
The answer to this question depends entirely on what you want out of Counter-Strike. If you’re a casual player who mostly plays custom community modes like surf or kz, or you just want to play old maps with friends, the legacy CSGO client is 100% worth downloading. Thousands of community servers are still active for CSGO, and many of them have larger player bases than their CS2 equivalents right now, since many custom mode creators haven’t made the jump to Source 2 yet.
If you’re a competitive player who wants to climb official ranks, join amateur tournaments, or watch and follow the pro scene, there’s no reason to stick to legacy CSGO. All official esports events, ranked matchmaking, and competitive updates are exclusive to CS2 now, so you’ll be missing out on all of that if you only play the legacy client. You don’t have to choose one or the other, both clients are accessible from your Steam library at no extra cost, so you can switch between them whenever you want depending on what you’re in the mood for.
I personally switch between both clients at least a few times a week. I play CS2 for official competitive matches and event challenges, and I boot up the legacy CSGO client every weekend to play surf maps and old Cache scrims with my college friend group, most of whom don’t have the time to relearn CS2’s recoil patterns. There’s no right or wrong choice here, as long as you’re having fun.
At the end of the day, yes, you can play CSGO after CS2, thanks to Valve’s official legacy beta branch that’s available to every Steam user who owns Counter-Strike 2. It’s completely safe, free to access, and gives you full access to all the old CSGO content you know and love, as long as you don’t mind missing out on official matchmaking and new updates. If you’ve been curious about revisiting the old client, there’s no harm in downloading it and testing it out for an hour or two – you might be surprised how much you missed the old CSGO feel. Just remember to back up your CS2 config files first if you have custom settings, so you don’t accidentally overwrite them when you launch the legacy client for the first time.