When it comes to the overall player base, this might not be known but Valorant is much ahead of CS2. Valorant has over 10 million concurrent players in 2025 compared to CS2’s player count, which is less than 2 million.
Riot Games is no stranger to releasing extremely popular games, and games like League of Legends and Valorant are proof of that. As a matter of fact, this is the second time a Riot-developed game overtook an older Valve game, with the first time being when League of Legends’ player count soared past Dota 2’s. Who knows, Riot might work on a hero shooter next to compete with Team Fortress 2.
On one hand, Valorant is completely free to play as every single purchase in the game is optional and purely cosmetic. This means players can reach the top of the Valorant leaderboard without spending a single cent on the game, something some players have even done.
On the other hand, CS2 requires players to purchase the Prime status to properly get a rank and start climbing the CS2 leaderboard. While it’s definitely possible to play CS2 without spending a single cent on the game, players have to spend some money if they want to dominate the leaderboards.