The most popular esports game in Canada is Counter-Strike. The game is represented by 19 squads that have won a total of $1,480,362. In addition, around 1,111,053 Canadians play Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO) overall.
This makes the game a huge part of the gaming culture in the country. This culture sees around 23,000,000 people play video games, and around 19,000,000 play casino games on sites licensed in Ontario and across the country.
In terms of CS:GO alone, it’s not only esports stars and other players that boost the popularity of the game, but viewers too. An estimated 1.5 million Canadians watch CS:GO monthly. They enjoy the gameplay of top Canadian esports stars.
Top Canadian players for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CO:GO)
CS:GO was released in 2012 and has gained a following worldwide, including in the Canadian esports landscape. Current top players in the country include:
- Russel Van Dulken “twistzz” – World ranking 76 and total prize money for the game of $1,536,793.10.
- Keith Markovic “NAF” – World ranking 116 and total prize money for the game of $1,222,882.06.
- Peter Jarguz “stanislaw” – World ranking of 416 and total prize money for the game of $511,120.72.
- Damian Steele “daps” – World ranking of 995 and total prize money for the game of $265,247.63.
- Michael Grzesiek “shroud” – World ranking of 914 and total prize money for the game of $218,480.69.
These top players will join others competing at tournaments, which are going to change with the introduction of Counter-Strike 2.
A move towards new tournament rules as we welcome Counter-Strike 2 (CS2)
The last CS:GO Major was the 2023 BLAST.tv Paris Major, which recorded peak viewing figures of 1.52 million during the finals of the competition. These figures made it the third most popular event in the history of the competition.
As we say goodbye to CS:GO, and look forward to CS2 esports tournaments, developer Valve has announced changes to future Counter-Strike events. More stringent rules regarding the hosting of events will be introduced in 2025. The new rules state that organizers are not permitted to have “unique business relationships or other conflicts of interest” with teams participating in their events.
This situation should mean the end of the semi-franchised partner team model that is currently prevalent in the esports landscape. This current landscape means that events outside of Valve-sponsored Majors are mostly operated by semi-franchised esports leagues, the ESL Pro League, operated by ESL Gaming, and BLAST Premier, operated by BLAST.
