Counter-Strike 2 seems more likely than ever following Valve's recent trademark application

Another day, another Counter-Strike 2 rumor - only this one is the most promising yet, as developer Valve has seemingly filed a trademark filing for something called "CS2".

As spotted by PCGN, on March 14, Valve Corporation filed a trademark application to the USPTO for "CS2", adding fuel to the speculative fire that a new CS:GO game may be on the way.

And if that's not enough to convince you, there's even more; the new filing links to two other, older trademark filings, and whilst Valve was canny enough to put the registration numbers rather than the names of the "related properties", a quick search tells you that US Registration Number 5857740 and 5857738 relate to previous trademark filings for Counter-Strike and CS:GO.

There have been rumors that a new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive game is on the way for some time now, but this is possibly the most concrete hint yet that a CS:GO Source 2 is just around the corner.

It follows recent reports from noted CS leakers that found a couple of curious files have popped up in NVIDIA's latest drive update - one called cs2.exe and the other csgo2.exe.

We also had journalist Richard Lewis similarly reporting that "a new version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive [is] on its way"... and it is "almost certainly set to be released under the working title of Counter-Strike 2".

Despite releasing over 11 years ago, it seems CS:GO has never been more popular; the shooter broke its own concurrent user record - the term given to the number of players logged into a game all at the same time - last month, and then again just two weeks later. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, the record's just be broken again. According to SteamDB, the current record sits at a mind-boggling 1,420,183 concurrent players.

Steam records are usually broken when many of us are off work or stuck at home, which means we often see these records broken during holiday periods or on weekends. However, it's very possible that the exciting news of a new CS:GO iteration has got people playing again, too.

Keep up to date with all the best games set to launch later this year with our guide to new games 2023.