What happened to CS:GO servers
Valve released Counter-Strike 2 on 27 September 2023 as a free replacement for CS:GO. The game in every player's Steam library became CS2, and official matchmaking moved with it.
That matters for hosting because a server is only useful if players can join it. Your players launch CS2 by default, so a CS2 server is the one they can connect to without doing anything special. This is why a search for CS:GO hosting today usually ends at a CS2 plan.
What is different on a CS2 server
The engine changed, and most of the differences an owner notices follow from that.
- Tick rate: CS2 uses sub-tick on 64 tick servers, so there is no 128 tick option to pay for or configure
- Plugins: SourceMod plugins do not run. CS2 plugins are built on CounterStrikeSharp, loaded through Metamod:Source
- Maps: custom maps have to be rebuilt for the new engine, so old map files do not load as they are
- Size: the server install is far larger, about 70 GB against a fraction of that for CS:GO
- Configs: most familiar cvars survive, but some were renamed or removed, so old cfg files need a pass
What carries over
More than people expect. The way you run a server is the same: a Steam game server login token under app ID 730, a launch line with a map and a mode, RCON, and a cfg folder. Competitive, casual, wingman and deathmatch are still chosen with game_type and game_mode.
The popular community formats all have CS2 versions. Retakes, practice and match setups, surf, KZ and deathmatch are available as CounterStrikeSharp plugins, often maintained by the same people who wrote the originals. Your community, your rules and your server name move across unchanged.
How to move a server from CS:GO to CS2
Treat it as a rebuild with a checklist, not a copy.
- List every plugin you ran and find its CounterStrikeSharp equivalent before you start
- Check which of your custom maps have been rebuilt for CS2 and collect their Workshop IDs
- Start from a clean CS2 config and bring settings across one group at a time, testing as you go
- Budget disk for the larger install: 80 GB is a sensible allowance
- Reuse your Steam login token, or create a new one for app ID 730
- Keep a copy of gameinfo.gi once Metamod is added, because updates can overwrite it
Do you need the same size server?
Memory needs are similar. A 10 to 12 slot competitive, retake or practice server with a normal plugin stack runs comfortably in 4 GB, which is the size of our Counter-Strike 2 plan at €10.99 a month with VAT included.
The two things that changed are disk, which is much larger, and CPU, where a single fast core matters even more than it did. If your CS:GO server ran on a small, slow box, expect the CS2 version to want better hardware for the same slot count.
When CS:GO itself still makes sense
A small number of communities keep a CS:GO server alive on purpose, for a mod or a map that has no CS2 version. That is a deliberate niche: players have to opt in to the older version of the game to join, and it no longer receives official support. For a team server, a community server you want new players to find, or anything competitive, CS2 is the version to build on.