Valve is faking their player counts for their games massively. How is this allowed? You can clearly see there is only ~200 active players, yet steam shows a player count of 20,000 far from the reality. Every valve game is like this.

Ruskies on private servers. Steam stats just records who simply has the game open.

You realize most people play CS with private matchmaking, right?

>>715757585
Actually, they don't.

>>715757585
>>715757549
you're telling me 19,000 people are playing source with in their own private server against bots? I'm not buying that

>>715757460 (OP)
>You can clearly see there is only ~200 active players
>adding just the top 4 servers' players together gives 199

>>715757849
No one said it was against bots? What are you on about?

>700 people on the cropped page alone
>only 16 of 50 results per page shown
>15 pages of active servers

>>715757460 (OP)
>15 pages
>50 items per page
>all displayed servers have 20+ playes
OP...?

>>715757849
Yes?

>>715757963
then what are they doing? sitting with the game open? 100x the population of people actively playing online servers for a game designed to be played against other people doesn't make sense. these numbers aren't real
>>715758107
>>715758130
page 2, page 3 and on there is only 1 player per server. Not adding up to anywhere near 20,000

>>715758379
You already got BTFO by >>715758252 and you clearly don't understand how private matchmaking works. You literally can't browse their servers unless you join their private network, they are not public.

>>715758252
>>715758471
you are wrong, those are fake player numbers. the site I used displays the servers that are real. valve is allowing fake player numbers to inflate their player counts

>thinking valve cares about the playercount for their old games
lol, what's happening here is artificial server population inflation. Happens to every community server based multiplayer game. If you have a server that appears "full" then people are bound to join

TF2 numbers were faked due to spoof accounts running idlers and bots. The actual steam server browser for some CS games are fucked entirely and don't work at all though.

>>715757460 (OP)
there are 500+ players in your image which is showing 1 page out of 15

uh oh. OP uncovered the fake 20 year old FPS player count consiracy, its only a matter of time before gaben unalives him.

>>715757460 (OP)
Post one reason why they would do that, remember it's a private company without shareholders to prove anything to

>>715758595
then counter the other anon's counterexample anon, they just made a reasonable argument on why the count is apparently inflated. you can't just say "no" and suddenly your claim is irrefutable, that's not how this works.

>>715758837
>wow this game is really active I'll buy it
if not then why are they allowing it? clearly brings them in more money this way
>>715758950
do you really think 100 servers all at exactly 51/64 is real? that's quite a coincidence

>>715758379
if you want to make a better argument for "botting" (not necessarily from valve itself), you can leverage steamdb charts into your mix:
https://steamdb.info/app/240/charts/ (spiky; abnormal behavior on thursday at 0700/0800 UTC)
https://steamdb.info/app/730/charts/#1w (normal)
https://steamdb.info/app/1086940/charts/#1w (normal)

fwiw, https://steamdb.info/app/440/charts/#1w has a similar "spike" around the 0700/0800 mark on thursday as well but not as absurd compared to the rest of the graph - and not as apparent as the one for cssource.

>>715758252
you dumb as hell boy

>>715759142
>he thinks valve is still trying to make money on CS:Source
Loving every laugh

>>715759142
Steam stats don't record player counts from the server list, it counts actual Steam-connected accounts that have the game's EXE running.

>>715758471
>>715758252
>he doesn't know about the server spoofing
>he has probably never played a source game or looked at server browser

shut the fuck up, retard

>>715758950
It's the same fucking server on different ports. They all redirect to one place. It's a decade old exploit that valve still won't fix for some reason.

>>715759490
no, these are private servers for autistic russians. it's not a conspiracy to inflate the playercount of the game.

>>715759246
nice, that 20K jump in "players" is ridiculous. I don't understand why they are botting old games that don't generate money
>>715759354
same is used for every valve game, it's more obvious in the old games like source. so cs2, tf2 it gets people thinking it's more active than it is and will buy loot boxes and cosmetics

Battlefield 3 and 4 do that as well. I suspect it's server owners trying to attract clueless players.
Guess that's one of the few downsides of community servers. Once your playerbase condenses into few smaller tight-knit communities (see uncletopia), it's harder to get into hosting and actually being popular.

>>715759919
Yeah all those loot boxes and paid skins for CS:Source
Dumbass

>>715760419
nice reading comprehension

>>715757460 (OP)
why does Valve make so many people seethe?

>>715760742
They answer my question retard, why would valve bot for a game they can't sell skins or loot boxes before?

>>715757460 (OP)
In just what we see here, there are over 500 players. These are people in active matches on public servers. So right from the outset it's obvious you're someone who can't count.
Also to note is this list does not include private servers, matchmaking, and knife-openings which can all have the game open but not be on public listings.

>>715759356
I thought this was common knowledge, but here we are with anon having to spell it out.

I don't think valve cares about their player numbers lul
CS2 has so many players and most of those are just bots farming boxes.
Player count doesn't even mean they're actually playing, you could be idling for all they care

>>715760843
that's my question why are they doing this? they must be making more money from it and that's why they keep it
>>715761013
this is source, no matchmaking and no knife openings
>>715761182
>>715759356
there simply is not that amount of people playing this game in local private server mode, it is bare bones and next to nothing. Majority of anyone still playing will be online servers

>>715757460 (OP)
https://steamcommunity.com/app/240/discussions/0/594028782065682945/

This you?

>>715761615
>unable to admit that you're wrong even after acknowledging that what you're saying doesn't make any sense and valve has no reason to do it
mental illness

>>715761615
>ask a question whose answer doesn't exist
>why are they doing this???
You're fucking stupid

I'll have a laugh if Valve somehow made all the bots confuse CS:S for CS2's exe.

>>715761915
Well that was quick. Anyways it took about three clicks to learn this guy's name is Lascu Bogdan from Romania, a technically-skilled but ultimately failed artist, and looks oddly Chinese.
Hopefully your career in arts work out and you can stop whining about a shitty game, OP!

>>715762257
>neet artist
like clockwork

>>715762257
>Romanian
>looks oddly Chinese
Would it surprise you that a lot of Romanians look anything but white?

>>715757460 (OP)
Nobody in the first world plays CS anymore. You russkies get what you deserve.

>>715761915
>>715762257

>>715761952
>ask why valve has fake player numbers
>you "why are they fake then"
>that's what I'm trying to figure out
>hurr you should know the answer to the question
genius

>>715762810
>my hypothesis was prove false with basic thinking
>I need to investigate this further

>>715762974
how does appearing to have more players not drive interest to their games?

>>715763078
There's no reason for valve to drive interest to CSS instead of CS2.

>>715763078
Again, why would they need to do that with an over 20 year old game when Valve has shown time and time again they can print money with their free to play titles? Why would they waste the money or resources on that when a single artist making a knife skin for CS2 would make them the same money in a week as the sales of cs:source make in a year?

>>715762368
They call 'em starving artists for a reason.

>>715757460 (OP)
Its their storefront and launcher. They can fake the numbers if they want. Wouldn't be surprised if Valve themselves deployed TF2 bots

>>715762589
Lascu, I wasn't shitting on you personally, but I am shitting on your netiquette. I should not be able to find your face in three clicks! Your Steam links your YouTube, your YouTube links your Artstation, and your Artstation makes your LinkedIn very apparent!

>>715763078
valve makes most of its money from fucking lootboxes, the last thing they want is to drive popularity of their older games higher

>>715763708
Take your meds, schizo.
Maybe just maybe, Valve isn't manipulating shit and ruskies just want to play or idle in Source.

>>715763580
Anon, he's a romanian artist. He's suffered enough.

>>715763826
who the fuck are you replying to? learn to read, retard

>>715757460 (OP)
Why won't it be allowed? No one said player numbers are the numbers of actual people playing the game.

>>715761615
>>715763078
if you don't think general IQ is dropping after reading these posts I have bad news for you

>AntiValve spergs exporting the fake players bullshit tftumors were shrieking about
>Don't have an economy to pretend people are farming for drops in
>Don't have any grievances like the tftumors wanting to take over TF2 and ban everyone they don't like and force people to think they're cool.
>IT IS FUCKING 2025 AND NIGGAS STILL DO NOT REALIZE LISTING YOURSELF IN THE VALVE MASTER SERVER IS COMPLETELY OPTIONAL

>>715757460 (OP)
OP you are so fucking retard

>>715757460 (OP)
yeah valve is faking the player count for a game they only get money from when people find out they need it for something in gmod

>>715757460 (OP)
Is this more Uma Musume shit-flinging? Just go back to >>>/a/.

>>715757460 (OP)
Ice cream? I love ice cream!