Following the launch of CS2, Valve disabled the game’s built-in demo recording system, allegedly to provide for more “server availability.” Since then, fans have continuously asked Valve to bring demos back, as they are a valuable tool for tracking stats and improving one’s skills.
An Oct. 30 Reddit thread sparked discussion on the subject of demos. The thread highlighted that it’s been over one month since Valve disabled demos and pointed out how CS:GO never needed to do so despite having more active players. Demos were removed on Sept. 28, and CS2 has lost over 20 percent of its players in the last 30 days, according to Steamcharts. It makes no sense, the original post claims, that demos should remain disabled with lower server loads.
“Thousand and thousands of matches can’t be recorded on sites like csgostats.gg or leetify because of this, we can’t track our stats,” says the original post. Many stat-tracking websites utilize Valve’s CSTV service to log players’ statistics, which could subsequently be used to spot mistakes and improve on them, further leading to heightened player development.
Some users in the thread theorized that all this might have something to do with CS2‘s sub-tick updates, a new server configuration Valve marketed as one of the biggest changes in Counter-Strike. One user claimed that even with fewer players than CS:GO, the CS2 servers might be drawing a lot more power and would, in turn, need all the juice they can get.
“The packet size in CS2 is three times the size of CS:GO‘s, which could point to CS2 servers requiring much more resources,” they said.
Due to Valve’s disabling the demo feature, players were forced to find alternative ways to record their matches.
CS2 has been under heavy criticism for many issues plaguing the game since its launch, even while Valve says that the launch has been a success. Though its numbers pale compared to the peak of CS:GO, CS2 still gets millions of players monthly. Nevertheless, it is issues like these that seemingly prevent it from surpassing its predecessor, and it’s uncertain how Valve will act down the line.
