Valve says that the company didn’t make a Mac version of the new Counter-Strike 2 because hardly anyone played the original game on the platform in the first place. In a blog post detailing the future plans for the Legacy CS: GO version, the company says that the total plan time for the original competitive shooter on Mac represented less than 1% of active CS: GO players.
As a result of this super-low number, Valve is discontinuing support for CS: GO on Mac. Starting on 1 January 2024, Valve will no longer support the game across all platforms including Mac.
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The difference between Mac and the “other platforms” is that players on Windows can jump right into Counter Strike 2. The game is meant to act as a full sequel to the original game and if anything, the transition between the two games is also seamless. Mac players, however, have nowhere to go as Counter-Strike 2 isn’t available on the operating system.
This isn’t very surprising. CS: GO is a heavily competitive game and if anything, Mac doesn’t seem to be the best place to play it anyway. This is likely why the total player count for the game has been abysmal.
Apple, on the other hand, is investing quite heavily in gaming. The company recently launched its iPhone 15 Pro devices with a new dedicated GPU focus on the A17 Pro chip. Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 4 Remake are expected to launch on the phone and be fully playable across M1 Mac devices too.
But even with that, it is a bit too early to call Apple a great place for gaming. Perhaps if Apple finds a way to drive more engagement towards gaming on its platforms, Valve will consider a Counter-Strike 2 Mac version. For now, the platform just isn’t the best fit.
Source: Valve
