Counter-Strike
Ranked 3 of 20 multiplayer shooters by recommenders
Skill-based team shooter with a long-lived community and free-to-play access. Most common caveat: cheaters and bots on official servers.
Skill-based team shooter with a long-lived community and free-to-play access. Most common caveat: cheaters and bots on official servers.
49 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 30
- criticize it
- 19
- approval share
- 61%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 30 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Rewards aim and skill
“I loved that what you built by playing these games was not digital wealth but physical skill”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “We are not here to make code” “I even prefer the original CS over most of today's FPS games”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Mars Bar from 1991 found – and it's 20g bigger than today's” “scouts and knives was the ultimate aim trainer”
Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: A new kind of FPS aim trainer” Long-lived, active community
“Counter-Strike 1.6 has long ended its development but it has (or had) a prolific community servers to this day”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Stop Killing Games fails to secure EU law despite 1.3M signatures” “It seems to keep older players well while still getting enough new ones.”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls” “counter strike 1.3, starcraft had very lasting user base”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software” Free to play, cosmetic skins
“There is 0% pay to win, if anything the skins are a disadvantage because they usually stand out.”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license” “all the core gameplay stuff in Dota and CS and be totally free for the average player”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm” “Counter Strike meanwhile has item skins which don't impact the game.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Steam Machine” Addictive and fun with friends
“CS seem semi-accidental but the post death chatting gave it a little something I never got from other fps games.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)” “dethroned as the best time-waster in our lives when the Counter-Strike beta came out”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness” “pretty much became our lives”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “15.03. 1999 (27 years ago) ICQ chat where the name Counter-Strike was decided”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Cheaters and aimbots on servers
“there were already a lot of cheaters and a cheater ecosystem that still exists to this day”
Comment from 3 May 2026 in “Security Through Obscurity Is Not Bad” “Difference in the amount cheating between counter strike and valorant is just massive”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features” “Counterstrike and TF2 have absurd problems with bots and cheats on official servers”
Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “Redditor buys used CPU, turns out it was banned on Valorant and they are SoL” - Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Kernel Anti-Cheat Is an Overreach”
- Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Games using anti-cheats and their compatibility with GNU/Linux or Wine/Proton”
- Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Denuvo has been cracked in all single-player games it previously protected”
Skin gambling and loot boxes
“Valve makes 100x as much money with 1/100th of the effort by peddling Counter Strike skins”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts” “Counter-Strike especially has a pretty nasty gambling scene that Valve refuses to control”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license” “Valve has and continues to make lots of money from loot boxes in both CS and TF2”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license” - Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Meta is using the Linux scheduler designed for Valve's Steam Deck on its servers”
- Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “Epic fined €1.1M over manipulating children through in app purchases”
Boring without other players
“So much fun! Agreed with you though, it gets a bit boring without other users to play with.”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Play a 5 minutes match of CS 1.6 1v1 while you wait for your agent” “has already been done in cs and valorant, but it really only works well with small player count”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Kernel Anti-Cheat Is an Overreach”
Other multiplayer shooters people recommend
The four most recommended other multiplayer shooters, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arc Raiders | 52 | 12 | 81% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Fortnite | 33 | 55 | 38% | 9 | — | — |
| Counter-StrikeThis page | 30 | 19 | 61% | 11 | — | — |
| Counter-Strike 2 | 27 | 19 | 59% | 10 | — | — |
| Overwatch 2 | 22 | 22 | 50% | 11 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 51 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“played for a bit before i had to split, very fun”
“So much fun! Agreed with you though, it gets a bit boring without other users to play with.”
“My copy of CS from Steam doesn't do that.”
“it should run find one any modern browser”
“Counterstrike and TF2 have absurd problems with bots and cheats on official servers”
“I even prefer the original CS over most of today's FPS games”
“players to this day can utter the most reprehensible, racist garbage and expect no punishment”
“scouts and knives was the ultimate aim trainer”
“Spelunky 2 is much worse than CS in this regard”
“counter strike 1.3, starcraft had very lasting user base”
“has already been done in cs and valorant, but it really only works well with small player count”
“I finally stopped playing Counterstrike because of all the cheating.”
“Counter Strike meanwhile has item skins which don't impact the game.”
“CS seem semi-accidental but the post death chatting gave it a little something I never got from other fps games.”
“Counter-Strike 1.6 has long ended its development but it has (or had) a prolific community servers to this day”
“The games from 15-25 years ago are also great”
“Difference in the amount cheating between counter strike and valorant is just massive”
“There is 0% pay to win, if anything the skins are a disadvantage because they usually stand out.”
“Valve has and continues to make lots of money from loot boxes in both CS and TF2”
“Counter-Strike especially has a pretty nasty gambling scene that Valve refuses to control”
“there were already a lot of cheaters and a cheater ecosystem that still exists to this day”
“you could see the wallhacks and aimbots taking over every lobby”
“The only thing of note they've done since like 2020 is put a fresh coat of paint on CounterStrike. Which still counts of course”
“It seems to keep older players well while still getting enough new ones.”
“pretty much became our lives”
“Games like StarCraft, CounterStrike, Warcraft 3/DotA etc were and still are popular in "cybercafes" etc.”
“Counter-Strike was released as an early alpha on my forum and the rest was history.”
“Counterstrike works on official servers but not on Faceit servers”
“Counterstrike, (2) Dota 2, (3) Arc Raiders, (5) Terraria”
“runs absolutely fine on Linux”
“Why can't Valve and others get fined for worse designs?”
“Loot box style underage gambling in their live service games”
“I loved that what you built by playing these games was not digital wealth but physical skill”
“dethroned as the best time-waster in our lives when the Counter-Strike beta came out”
“all the core gameplay stuff in Dota and CS and be totally free for the average player”
“If I play CS consistently I'll get cheaters once or twice a week.”
“it's more relevant than ever”
“I'm a big fan of both Minecraft and Counter-Strike”
“there are some good games I can suggest but you might know them as well: Minecraft,Counter strike etc.”
“Valve makes 100x as much money with 1/100th of the effort by peddling Counter Strike skins”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.