CS:GO players aren't happy about Valve's new paid analytics service

Three counter-terrorist soldiers pose, defusing a bomb

(Image credit: Valve)

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's latest operation just wrapped up. But while Broken Fang's analytics tracking tool will live on as a paid subscription, CS:GO fans aren't happy about a service that's seemingly more expensive and less useful than existing third-party tools.

For $0.99 a month, CS:GO 360 Stats will let you track your stats across Competitive, Premier, and Wingman modes, giving you access to everything from K/D ratios per weapon to detailed heatmaps and accuracy narrowed down to individual body parts. Honestly, it's about time that the world's most popular competitive FPS added something like this to the game client.

CS:GO 360 stats splash page — (Image credit: Valve, via Reddit)

The rub is that these are stats that have already been covered by community tools like Leetify or CSGOstatsfor free, even offering a more comprehensive range of analytics. More concerned posters on the game's subreddit are worried that Valve may start restricting the API used for these tools—and while this may be somewhat paranoid, it speaks to a broader community frustration that Valve is trying to charge more, for less.

In more positive news, the latest CS:GO update finally fixed one of the game's most egregious issues—replacing the game's hideous old chicken models with some high-definition poultry worthy of a 2021 game.

Thanks, Kotaku.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.