Counter-Strike 2 Tick Rate Changes - What's New?

After years of speculation and recent leaks, we’ve finally got the news we’ve all been eagerly waiting for! Counter-Strike 2, or CS2, will drop in Summer this year, replacing the beloved base game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, with some quality-of-life updates and small but significant gameplay changes. 

One of the most game-changing updates CS:GO players will see is an alteration to the tick rate in CS2, which has caused some player frustration in the past. 

What is a tick rate? 

Tick rates are commonly seen in first-person shooter games and other competitive online games. 

Simply explained, a tick rate is a frequency in which a game server processes updates and player movements, measured in hertz. The higher the tick rate, the faster players receive responses and updates from the server, making their games more responsive to their actions. Many online games use tick rates to ensure an accurate and smooth gameplay experience for players in and outside the professional Counter-Strike esports scene. 

In official CS:GO servers, the tick rate is locked to 64 hertz but can be bumped up to 128 hertz in third-party servers. In the past, the CS:GO tick system could fail to account for a fraction of a second or millisecond between a shot being fired and the server registering the movement. This often caused well-aimed shots to miss their targets or for players to randomly respawn, so they would be left scratching their heads in confusion.  

The announcement of CS2 and the arrival of the now-live Limited Test beta have revealed that the tick rates will change to become a more fluid and accurate system. 

Tick Rate Changes in CS2

Valve is introducing a brand-new system to CS2, improving the outdated system of the previous game. 

For CS2, the developers have introduced a new sub-tick update system, so the tick rate no longer matters. This new technology will know the exact moment an action, shot, or movement is registered, even if it happened between ticks. We have embedded the short YouTube video demonstrating the new CS2 tick rate below, as Valve are now “moving beyond tick rate.”

While Valve remains tight-lipped about the specifics behind their new tick rate server technology, they are confident that players will feel the difference as their games will become smoother and less janky, with guaranteed precision in their actions.

Valve says that a player’s tick rate will no longer matter with their new server architecture, as “what they see is what they get.” This means that players can pop enemy heads and throw out ‘nades without crossing their fingers and praying that their actions register - every gameplay motion will be equally responsive, with grenades always landing the same way. 

This small but much-needed change will make Counter-Strike 2 a trailblazer in the gaming world, paving the way for the next generation of first-person shooter games. The Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test is now being rolled out to players at random, so they can now hone their skills and test the new features before CS2 is released to the public in the Summer of 2023.