Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) has long been a favorite among core PC gamers, which is reflected in our PC Game Tracker. In fact, the title has been in the top five of our most popular core PC games ranking for the last two years. In December 2018, the game was played by 16.7% of core PC gamers globally. That’s CS:GO’s highest player share in two years and month-on-month growth of 39.3%. This is a result of the game moving to a free-to-play model and adding a battle royale mode. Keep reading for a deep dive into the game’s performance and how it compared to other shooters. As always, we will finish with a panoramic look at the month’s most popular core PC games.

CS:GO Adopts New Strategy and Surges in Popularity Across the Globe

Fortnite is undeniably the biggest game in the industry right now and is one of the most popular among core PC gamers.

In December 2018, CS:GO took cues from the title, adding a battle royale mode and adopting a free-to-play model.

In terms of player numbers, the change paid off in December. CS:GO was played by 16.7% of core PC gamers, up from 12.1% in November (+39.3% month on month) .

. Impressively, it also made up 3.6% of all core PC gamers’ play time in December , compared to 2.9% the previous month.

, compared to 2.9% the previous month. The game’s popularity had a direct effect on the share of core PC gamers who played a Valve game, which jumped from 20.3% in November to 24.3% in December .

. Although Valve remained the #3 publisher for player share, it closed in on #2 publisher Riot Games, whose games were played by 24.4% of core PC gamers in December.

CS:GO did best in Latin America, where it was played by 26.7% of core gamers (+35.7% growth month on month).

(+35.7% growth month on month). The region with the highest growth in CS:GO player share was North America, with +47.5% (14.8% player share). This is no surprise, as the market has an appetite for both battle royale and free-to-play titles.

Plenty of Churn and Crossover Between CS:GO and Other Shooters

Naturally, CS:GO’s new free-to-play model and battle royale mode piqued the curiosity of many core PC gamers who previously played similar titles.

Free-to-play battle royale phenomenon Fortnite is one of those games. In December, 27.9% of churned U.S. Fortnite players (people that played November 2018 but not in December 2018) tried out CS:GO instead .

. This number was even higher for PUBG (33.0%) , a non-free-to-play battle royale game.

, a non-free-to-play battle royale game. Most curious were previous players of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege in the U.S., of which 34.9% churned to CS:GO in December 2018.

in December 2018. Of all the core PC players in U.S. who played CS:GO in December, 37.3% also played Fortnite. This is the highest crossover between CS:GO and another game.

December 2018 was a strong month overall for shooters, easily the most played genre among U.S.-based core PC gamers. In fact, over half (50.8%) played a shooter at some point during the month.

December’s Most Popular Core PC Games: Ring of Elysium, Subnautica, and Battlefield V Enter the Ranking

Despite remaining relatively static in recent months, the top four in our ranking of the most popular core PC games finally had some movement in December. CS:GO’s popularity spike saw Fortnite and Hearthstone dropping to #3 and #4, respectively.

PUBG jumped one spot to #6 , overtaking Overwatch. This is likely a result of the launch of the fourth playable PUBG map, Vikendi.

, overtaking Overwatch. This is likely a result of the launch of the fourth playable PUBG map, Vikendi. Grand Theft Auto V climbed three positions to #10 , following the release of December’s Arena War update.

, following the release of December’s Arena War update. New entry Subnautica jumped from #110 in November (0.4% player share) to #17 (2.9% player share) in December . The game was temporarily offered for free on the Epic Games Store, highlighting that the store’s strategy—a bid to compete with Steam—is indeed attracting some core PC gamers.

. The game was temporarily offered for free on the Epic Games Store, highlighting that the store’s strategy—a bid to compete with Steam—is indeed attracting some core PC gamers. Other new entries included: Tencent’s take on battle royale, Ring of Elysium, entering at #15; and EA’s Battlefield V, which entered at #18 following its full release at the end of November.

Newzoo’s PC Game Tracker

Looking to easily identify and track key markets for your game, your competitor’s games, or even an entire publisher or genre? Or get detailed insights into player behavior, using metrics like play time, session time, and crossover engagement/churn with other games? Newzoo’s PC Game Tracker offers an in-depth, monthly overview of more than 3,000 games and 100 publishers across 42 countries/markets The data is derived from Overwolf’s user base of 12 million PC game enthusiasts and can be easily sliced and diced in multiple ways using our Tableau-powered dashboard.

Want to know more? Contact Fabrice Zaumseil, fabrice@newzoo.com, to request a demo of our PC Game Tracker.