Less than two weeks after a Counter-Strike 2 ban wave wiped out over 8000 malicious accounts, Valve has deployed yet another ban wave for its competitive shooter, this time targeting bot farms.
As per data from csstats.gg, the latest CS2 ban wave has issued suspensions on roughly 7700 accounts within the span of a single day. According to initial reports, these bans are targeted towards bot accounts that are used to farm weekly drops and Armory stars.
Player counts for CS2 game modes like Deathmatch, which were prime targets for bot farms, also appear to have been impacted by this ban wave. Compared to last week’s numbers, player counts for non-competitive game modes like Casual, Deathmatch, and Arms Race are down significantly.
The new CS2 ban wave also appears to have taken a toll on the game’s skin market, with prices for high-tier cosmetics such as knives and gloves dropping by a considerable margin.
While the skin market crash could be good news for players who previously couldn’t afford expensive knives like the Butterfly Doppler or Karambit Fade, it has raised concerns among collectors and investors who may have spent heavily on top-shelf skins.
Whether Valve’s latest ban wave will have a lasting impact on CS2’s farming bots problem and the overall skin economy still remains to be seen. For now, however, the sheer scale of the bans appears to have made a noticeable dent in multiple parts of the game’s ecosystem.
