UpdatesOct 9, 20267 min readCS2Sell

CS2 update history: every major update since launch in 2023

A dated timeline of every major Counter-Strike 2 update from the September 2023 launch to September 2026: cases, terminals, Armory content, drop collections, Premier seasons, maps and Majors.

Counter-Strike 2 arrived as a free upgrade to CS:GO on September 27, 2023, after a Limited Test for selected CS:GO players that began on March 22, 2023. Since then Valve has added content through a few recurring channels: weapon cases and, from September 2025, terminals; the Armory, a paid pass whose credits buy collections, charms, stickers and limited-edition skins; new drop collections in the weekly Care Package; Premier seasons, which since 2025 have each changed the Active Duty map pool; community maps; and the Majors, with their own in-game hub for stickers and souvenirs.

The dates below are Valve's official US Pacific dates. Each linked article covers one update in detail, with full item lists.

2023

Date	Update	Headline additions
Mar 22	Limited Test begins	Invite-only CS2 test for selected CS:GO players
Sep 27	Launch	Premier Season One and CS Rating; 24-round matches; weekly Care Package replaces drops; Training Day; CS:GO coin and music kit for veterans
Nov 2	Maps Workshop opens	Community maps can be uploaded and hosted on community servers

2024

Date	Update	Headline additions
Feb 6	Kilowatt Case	Kilowatt Case with the new Kukri Knife; Ambush Sticker Capsule; NIGHTMODE Music Kit Box; Arms Race returns; up to five freely placed stickers
Mar 13	Copenhagen Major	First CS2 Major hub; free Pick'Em for Prime players; team and player stickers from Mar 20
Apr 25	Left hand and Dust II	Left-hand viewmodels; buy menu upgrades; Dust II replaces Overpass in Active Duty
May 23	Weapon rentals	Rent the Kilowatt Collection for a week; cheaper M4A4 and incendiary; Vertigo A site in Wingman
Jun 25	First community maps	Thera, Mills, Memento, Assembly and Pool Day; skill group overhaul
Aug 19–20	Snap Tap ban	Input automation no longer allowed; multi-action binds disabled; MASTERMINDS 2 Music Kit Box
Oct 2	The Armory	Armory Pass; Gallery Case; Overpass 2024, Graphic Design and Sport & Field collections; limited-edition Desert Eagle (Heat Treated)
Oct 2	Charms	First charms (Missing Link, Small Arms); Elemental Craft and Character Craft stickers; sticker scrape selector; 7-day re-trade restriction
Nov 13	Train returns	Rebuilt Train; Overpass changes; community maps Basalt, Edin, Palais and Whistle
Nov 27	Shanghai Major	Major hub; Perfect World's "Ay Hey" music kit; rentals for all CS:GO cases

2025

Date	Update	Headline additions
Jan 28	Premier Season Two	Train in, Vertigo out; Season One medals; cheaper M4A4; FAMAS changes
Mar 31	Fever Case	Armory: Fever Case with Shattered Web knives in Chroma finishes; Train 2025 collection; limited-edition XM1014 (Solitude)
Mar 31	Ascent, Boreal and Radiant	Three drop collections; Bank, Italy, Lake and original Train leave the Care Package
May 7	Weekly missions	Weekly bonus-XP missions; community maps Jura, Grail, Agency, Dogtown and Brewery
May 22	Warhammer 40,000 capsules	Adeptus Astartes, Traitor Astartes, Imperium and Xenos sticker capsules
May 22 – Jul 2	Austin Major	Team and player stickers; Souvenir Highlight Packages with the first Souvenir Charms
Jul 15	Premier Season Three	Overpass in, Anubis out; MP9 nerf; Trade Protected Items with 7-day trade reversal
Aug 14	Night Ancient and Deluge	Ancient and Shoots upgrades and night versions; Deluge Music Kit Box; limited-edition M4A1-S (Solitude)
Sep 16	Genesis Terminal	Genesis Collection in the first terminal; inspect teammates' loadouts while spectating; map scripting
Oct 1	New charms and stickers	Missing Link Community and Dr. Boom charms; 2025 Community and Sugarface 2 stickers; Gallery Case leaves the Armory; four community maps
Oct 22	Covert trade-ups	Five Coverts trade up into a knife or gloves; Retakes as an official mode
Nov 4	TrueView	Demo playback re-runs the player's client-side prediction
Nov 12	Sticker Slabs	Charm that seals any sticker; newly bought Name Tags and StatTrak Swap Tools no longer tradable
Nov 12 – Dec 18	Budapest Major	Team and player stickers; Souvenir Charms return; Champions Autograph Capsule
Dec 5	Workshop Supplemental Terms	Optional flat licence fees for Workshop items; first Call to Arms-ory themes

2026

Date	Update	Headline additions
Jan 21	Premier Season Four	Anubis in, Train out; SMG tweaks; five community maps; limited-edition AK-47 (Aphrodite)
Jan 21	Harlequin and Achroma	Two drop collections; Safehouse, Dust 2, 2018 Nuke and 2018 Inferno leave the Care Package
Mar 11	Dead Hand Terminal	Dead Hand Collection with 22 new gloves, the first terminal with a gold tier
Mar 18	Reload redesign	Reloading discards the old magazine; map guides in Competitive and Retakes; join friends' custom games
Apr 28	Cache returns	Cache in Casual, Competitive, Deathmatch and Retakes
May 7	NIGHTMODE II	Six music kits in the Store tab
May 21	Cologne Major	Major Shop replaces capsules; Souvenir-O-Matic; Souvenirs allowed in trade-ups
Jul 3	Jackass Sticker Capsule	39 stickers, in association with Paramount Games Studio
Jul 8	Premier Season Five	Cache in, Overpass out; bomb damage rework; five community maps; four collections leave the Armory
Jul 8	Arabesque and Spy Tech	Two weapon collections and two sticker collections from the Call to Arms-ory
Jul 28	Cologne Ranked Series	Stickers that show each team's final standing
Sep 22	Rush mode	Rush 3v3 mode; Premier map picks; crosshair upgrade; clan tags; silent reloads; Starjunk 95 music kit

Patterns across three years

Community-made containers. Every weapon case and terminal since launch has held 17 finishes credited to community artists. The rare special items vary: the Kukri Knife in Kilowatt and again in Gallery, Shattered Web knives in Chroma finishes in Fever, none in Genesis, and 22 new gloves in Dead Hand.
Terminals instead of keys. The two newest containers, Genesis and Dead Hand, are terminals. They drop weekly, need no key, and offer you items from the collection to buy.
Armory rotation. The Gallery Case, Graphic Design collection and Character Craft stickers left in October 2025; Train 2025, Sport & Field, Sugarface 2 and Elemental Craft left in July 2026. There have been four limited-edition skins so far, the latest being the AK-47 | Aphrodite in January 2026.
Care Package rotation. Twice, in March 2025 and January 2026, Valve added new drop collections and removed four older ones in the same update.
One map swap per Premier season. Season One ran from launch to January 2025, with Dust II replacing Overpass in April 2024. Since then seasons have started in January and July, and each has swapped one map: Train for Vertigo, Overpass for Anubis, Anubis for Train, then Cache for Overpass.
Community maps in batches. They arrive four or five at a time, and newer batches replace older ones. October 2025 removed four of the five maps from May 2025, and July 2026 removed four of the five from January 2026.
Majors moved away from capsules. From Copenhagen to Budapest, team and player stickers came in capsules. Cologne 2026 replaced them with a Major Shop where you buy the exact sticker you want with tokens.