CS2 rank distribution highlights just how many players are hard stuck

Feel like a noob? Welcome to the club.

Banner of CS2 featuring a Terrorist character next to 'Counter-Strike 2'.
Image via Valve
Highlights:

• The plurality of CS2 Premier players sit around 4k Elo, according to Leetify.
• Of the nearly 2 million players indexed, 0.2 percent are at or above 20k Elo.
• Nearly 80 percent of players are under 10k Elo, an increase from Leetify’s September 2023 index.

More than a quarter of Counter-Strike 2 players are struggling to achieve a meaningful Elo, according to a review of the CS2 rank distribution by Leetify. The charts, indexing nearly 2 million players, show around 28 percent of CS2 players sitting at 4,000 Elo or less.

Leetify published its rankings on Nov. 30, showcasing exactly where and how many players lie on the CS2 Premier Elo charts. According to the ranks, 15.5 percent of players are stuck at 4,000 Elo, with some 13 percent ranking below that. Valve initially put in place safety nets for players that have deranked to 4,000 Elo, removing Elo losses for anyone under the 5,000 Elo mark. Those were quickly removed, though, which may explain why a good chunk of players dipped so low in their Elo ratings.

Leetify CS2 rankings for November 2023.
Premier Elo is still not fully calibrated. Image via Leetify

According to Leetify’s findings, the rankings have significantly changed since the game’s launch in September 2023. Initially, around 62 percent of players were below the 10,000 Elo mark, but now 78 percent are under that threshold, with as many as 65 percent of all players hovering between 4,000 and 9,999 Elo. The rank distributions are still not fully calibrated, and it will likely take a few months more for the player base to reach an equilibrium.

On the other side of the spectrum, only 0.2 percent of all CS2 players have crossed the 20,000
Elo mark. As for those in the Golden ranks, with over 30,000 Elo, there appear to be only two in the world at the time of writing.

CS2 Premier leaderboard.
Only two players have reached the top of CS2‘s Premier rankings. Screenshot by Dot Esports

Fluctuations in rankings are bound to happen, especially with how CS2 handles MMR and Elo ratings. Whether or not Valve tackles the issue of CS2‘s MMR calculations and cheaters at the top of the leaderboard is uncertain, though we’ll be sure to keep an eye on it.

Author

Andrej Barovic
Gaming since childhood, Andrej spends most of his time ranting on how games used to be. He's been a writer for over two years, combining his love for literature and passion for video games. He's usually around after dark, grinding his way through the latest FromSoftware release or losing his mind on Summoner's Rift.