News

A community-shared CS2 chart tracks which weapons players use most

The quarterly chart compares weapon kill shares from 2Q 2021 through 2Q 2026, with the CS2 launch marked in the timeline.

0 14 1 minute read

Counter-Strike 2 opens three new themes for Workshop creators

A chart shared by Reddit user philmcp tracks how Counter-Strike weapon usage changed across quarterly kill-share data from 2Q 2021 through 2Q 2026. A vertical dashed line marks the launch of Counter-Strike 2, giving the chart a clear before-and-after reference point without presenting the launch as the only cause behind every movement.

The graphic measures each weapon’s share of all kills. Its figures are attributed to EsportsOdds.gg’s weapon-usage data, while the Reddit post presents the results as a set of small quarterly trend lines. The underlying methodology is not detailed in the post, so these numbers are best treated as a data visualization rather than confirmed Valve statistics.

What changed across the chart

The AK-47 remained the largest source of kills throughout the period, moving from 34.7% at the chart’s starting point to 34.4% at the end. Its line fluctuated, but the overall share stayed nearly level.

The clearest movement came from the rifle lineup. The M4A1-S rose from 1.2% to 13.3%, while the M4A4 went from 16.6% to 11.9%. The AWP also fell from 13.3% to 10.9%. Those figures point to a far larger share for the M4A1-S by 2Q 2026 than it had in the earlier part of the chart.

Several other weapons showed smaller changes. The Galil AR climbed from 3.0% to 4.9%, and the Glock-18 increased from 3.3% to 4.5%. The MP9 moved from 2.3% to 3.0%, while the Tec-9 rose from 0.7% to 1.9%.

On the other side, the Desert Eagle dropped from 5.7% to 2.2%. The USP-S edged down from 5.1% to 4.7%, while the MAC-10 declined from 1.9% to 1.5%. The FAMAS finished at 1.4%, down from 2.6% at the start of the chart.

The chart does not explain why any weapon’s share changed, and it does not separate factors such as balance updates, map pools, economy decisions, or player preference. It does, however, offer a compact look at how the most-used weapons’ kill shares moved over time.

Counter-Strike players can compare these trends with their own match experience and tell us what they think in the comments. You can also follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, and Instagram.

Counter-Strike 2 is a free-to-play multiplayer tactical first-person shooter developed and published by Valve. Released in September 2023, it is the fifth main entry in the Counter-Strike series and serves as a direct replacement for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Steam. Two teams, Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists, compete in objective-based rounds across modes such as bomb defusal and hostage rescue. Built on the Source 2 engine, the game introduced volumetric smoke physics, revised weapon handling, and a new sub-tick server architecture. It inherited all cosmetic items from its predecessor and features both a map-specific Competitive mode and a numerically ranked Premier mode.