Valve said it's no longer supporting CS:GO gamers on macOS — here's why

Mac gamers are in for a disappointing time as Valve announced on Monday that its uber-popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will no longer support macOS. This lack of support also extends to the company's recently released sequel to CS:GO, Counter-Strike 2, with Valve stating that there are no plans to bring that game to macOS either.

This is unsurprising given that last month after the release of CS2, a forced update by Valve to CS:GO made the game unplayable for macOS users. The was confirmed in a Steam FAQ, with the publishing company adding that it's made the "difficult decision to discontinue support for older hardware, including DirectX 9 and 32-bit operating systems."

Valve said that Mac gamers only represent "less than one percent" of active CS:GO players. The company did state, however, that a legacy version of the game would be available that has all the features of the original (except official matchmaking). Valve's support of that legacy version will end in January 2024. The game will still be playable, but due to the lack of support (and poor compatibility with the Game Coordinator), certain functions may degrade.

Despite this, hundreds of thousands of CS:GO gamers are now left in the wind due to Valve's reluctance to develop CS2 for the Mac. It's worth noting that macOS lacks native support for the API the game is built on, making an already difficult OS for game-building even more challenging.

Mac users with a CS:GO Prime account will also be offered refunds if the bulk of their playtime was on macOS — and if they played the game in the time between when CS2's Limited Test was announced and the launch of the game. Valve will offer this refund until Dec. 1.