Over the past twelve years, there have been 23 CSGO and CS2 majors held worldwide, with 15 different winners claiming victory.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, launched in 2012, is the fourth game in the CS series. Majors began soon after in late 2013, and players continue to build their legacies on the biggest stages since then.
Valve, together with third-party tournament organizers, now hosts two majors a year, always held at the end of each season.
From 2013 all the way to today, here’s every CSGO and CS2 major winner so far, and a look forward to what’s next.
| Year | Name of Event | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Dreamhack Winter | Fnatic |
| 2014 | ESL One Katowice | Virtus.pro |
| 2014 | ESL One Cologne | Ninjas in Pyjamas |
| 2014 | Dreamhack Winter | Team LDLC.com |
| 2015 | ESL One Katowice | Fnatic |
| 2015 | ESL One Cologne | Fnatic |
| 2015 | DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca | Team EnVyUs |
| 2016 | MLG Columbus | Luminosity Gaming |
| 2016 | ESL One Cologne | SK Gaming |
| 2017 | ELEAGUE Major | Astralis |
| 2017 | PGL Major: Krakow | Esports |
| 2018 | ELEAGUE Major: Boston | Cloud9 |
| 2018 | FACEIT Major: London | Astralis |
| 2019 | IEM Katowice Major | Astralis |
| 2019 | Starladder Major: Berlin | Astralis |
| 2021 | PGL Stockholm Major | Natus Vincere |
| 2022 | PGL Major Antwerp | FaZe Clan |
| 2022 | IEM Rio Major | Outsiders |
| 2023 | Blast Paris Major | Team Vitality |
| 2024 | PGL Major Copenhagen | Natus Vincere |
| 2024 | Perfect World Shanghai Major | Team Spirit |
| 2025 | Blast Austin Major | Team Vitality |
| 2025 | StarLadder Budapest Major | Team Vitality |
| 2026 | IEM Cologne Major | TBD |
| 2026 | PGL Major Singapore | TBD |
Before CS2, CSGO ruled for a decade with 20 different majors and major winners. Fans may notice some team names pop up more than once in that time span.
Both playing in and hailing from Sweden, team Fnatic became the first CSGO major winner out of sixteen different competing teams. They took home $100,000 of the $250,000 prize money.
Virtus.pro swept EMS One in Poland with a finals score of 2-0 against Ninjas in Pyjamas. After Dreamhack 2013, the top eight were automatically invited to the next majors as legends, while qualifying and otherwise invited teams were known as challengers. The American team iBuyPower and the Australian squad Vox Eminor, were directly invited to compete in Poland.
While this may be Ninjas in Pyjamas’ only win at a CSGO or CS2 major event, it maintained an early competitive streak. The team placed second four different times, twice before their 2014 win and twice after.
Amidst the drama of two cheating scandals in the legends rank, Team LDLC came from the qualifiers to win the whole event. Valve also instituted a new format called GSL, where group matches were best of one and teams round-robined to see who made it to the playoffs.
Team LDLC disbanded in 2023 and no longer competes in CSGO or CS2 majors.
Two Swedish teams and former CSGO winners, Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas, went head to head for first place – and Fnatic came out on top. The 2015 major also saw the first South American team, Keyd Stars, qualifying for the playoffs in the tournament’s history.
ESL One Cologne 2015 was the third and final time that Fnatic won in a global major event. Until MLG Columbus in 2016, it was the first team to win back-to-back major titles. It was also the first tournament where participating team members had to be drug tested, but thankfully, all came back negative.
After placing second in the previous tournament, Team EnVyUs took home the final major title of 2o15. This gave them the chance to best Fnatic, who had knocked them out before.
After rebranding to Team Envy, the American esports team dissolved in 2022.
Brazilian squad Luminosity Gaming became the first non-European team to win a major title. In 2016, Valve raised the prize money from $250,000 to $1 million to be split among all of the teams. In another big change, this was the first tournament not run by ESL or Dreamhack.
Previously known as Luminosity Gaming, SK Gaming took home its second consecutive major win at Cologne 2016. One notable absence from the legends roster was Ninjas in Pyjamas, who failed to place in the top eight at the previous major for the first time in eight tournaments.
While SK Gaming no longer has a CSGO or CS2 presence, the team can still be found competing in League of Legends and Valorant, among other esports.
Danish esports team Astralis first became major winners in 2017 after participating in nine playoffs since 2013, and it continues to compete in the CS2 age. Interestingly, Eleague also held a rematch between Astralis and second-place team Virtus.pro in June of 2017 with a cash prize of $250,000. With knowledge of their later streak, no one was surprised that Astralis won that too.
An underdog compared to teams like Astralis and Fnatic, Gambit Esports managed to defeat both and go on to win its first and only major. The runner-up team, Immortals, also defeated Virtus.pro to get to the final game in an upset.
Gambit Esports is no longer active after bans on Russian esports teams were enacted in 2022. It sold the roster to Cloud9 the same year.
Eleague Major Boston 2018
Cloud9 came from the bottom eight at the 2017 PGL tournament to win the entire Eleague Major. Notably, it is the only North American team to take home first place at a CSGO or CS2 major.
The 2018 Eleague Major is the only CS tournament to take place in two different locations. Additionally, Valve increased the number of qualifying teams from 16 to 24 and revamped the format into a Swiss-style challengers round, group stage legends, and playoffs champions.
FACEIT Major London 2018
After its core team failed to make it to Boston in January 2018, Astralis regained their returning legend status and took home the gold. Valve and FACEIT also added in the Buchholz system for seeding in the Swiss stage, where teams with more wins earned higher seeds.
Astralis became the third team in CS majors history to win two consecutive tournaments. ESL returned to host its first major since 2016 and removed the Buchholz system for Elo rating, along with making all progression or elimination methods best of three.
Astralis ends its four majors era at Berlin 2019. It is the only team to win more than three times so far, as well as the only team to win three majors in a row. Player Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz also earned a record as the second person to win MVP twice.
Natus Vincere dominated Stockholm 2021, not losing a single map during the entire tournament. For this major only, Valve combined the prize money that would have been given out in 2020 and 2021 for a total of $2 million. The previously scheduled IEM Rio Major 2020 was canceled due to the global pandemic. Additionally, organizers switched to using Regional Major Ranking points to seed in the new Challenger Stage, followed by the Buchholz system.
Long-time competitor FaZe Clan dethroned Natus Vincere and won its first major since it debuted in 2015. MVP Håvard “rain” Nygaard is the longest-lasting CS team member of any team, having been with FaZe Clan from the beginning. Furthermore, FaZe Clan is the first team to win with an international player base. Many of FaZe’s major winners remain on the team in the CS2 era.
Previously operating under the name Virtus.pro, the Outsiders organization took on all the organization’s teams in 2022. Created to get around sanctions against Russia in 2022, the squad disbanded shortly after winning the Rio Major.
Valve raised the prize money to $1.25 million during the Rio Major and has kept it consistent with that number since. The price of some recent stickers mirrors the overall increase in major prize money.
In its first win, Team Vitality is the last of the CSGO major winners before Valve switched to CS2. The previous winners, Outsiders, became the only previous champion not to qualify for the following majors.
Paris also marks a special event for player Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen. The event was his fifth major win since the tournament began. Previously a member of Astralis, he competed with Team Vitality for 2022 and the first half of 2023. Dupreeh now plays for Team Falcons.
After CS2 came out on September 27, 2023, tournament organizers switched focus away from CSGO. All the following major winners earned their titles in Counter-Strike 2, the latest version of the venerated franchise.
Natus Vincere became the first winners of a CS2 major tournament. This is the company’s second win in the history of CSGO and now CS2, having come in as runner-up four different times since 2015.
Valve announced that it would be renaming the stages to opening stage, elimination stage, and playoffs Stage. Additionally, the developer began including global rankings for seeding that prioritize consistency over underdog wins.
The Russian esports group Team Spirit took home their first CSGO or CS2 win at Perfect World Shanghai. The major gained some attention for canceling open qualifiers, making it so new teams couldn’t participate. Team Spirit member Danil “donk” Kryshkovets went on to become the tournament’s MVP as both the youngest and highest-ranked CS2 player to receive the recognition.
Team Vitality soared to victory at BLAST Austin over a record-breaking 31 other teams. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut became the third player in CS history to receive the Most Valuable Player award multiple times with his second triumph.
Vitality cemented themselves as the best team in the world in 2025, winning their consecutive Major trophy at the StarLadder Budapest Major.
Records were broken, as the Bees had one of the most dominant years in the history of Counter-Strike, combined with ZywOo earning his third Major MVP medal.
Vitality as an organization is now only one Major title away from Astralis. Can they match the most legendary Counter-Strike team of all time?
The upcoming CS2 major event is to be branded by IEM and will be set in Cologne, Germany. Tournament games will take place from June 2–21, 2026. With the event this far out, it’s impossible to know who might come out on top. But the action will certainly be fast and furious when the event arrives.
The second Major of 2026 has recently been announced by PGL. The tournament organizer will host the Major in Singapore, returning to Asia after only 2 years since the PGL Shanghai Major 2024.
All the usual aspects of a Major, like the prize pool, number of teams, and format, should be in line with other Majors we’ve had in CS2 thus far.
More specific and detailed information about the tournament will be released closer to the event.
| Team | Wins | Events Won |
|---|---|---|
| Astralis | 4 | ELEAGUE Major (2017), FACEIT Major: London (2018), IEM Katowice Major (2019), Starladder Major: Berlin (2019) |
| Fnatic | 3 | Dreamhack Winter (2013), ESL One Katowice (2015), ESL One Cologne (2015) |
| Team Vitality | 3 | Blast Paris Major (2023), Blast Austin Major (2025), StarLadder Budapest Major (2025) |
| Natus Vincere | 2 | PGL Stockholm Major (2021), PGL Major Copenhagen (2024) |
| Cloud9 | 1 | ELEAGUE Major: Boston (2018) |
| FaZe Clan | 1 | PGL Major Antwerp (2022) |
| Gambit Esports | 1 | PGL Major: Krakow (2017) |
| Luminosity Gaming | 1 | MLG Columbus (2016) |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas | 1 | ESL One Cologne (2014) |
| Outsiders | 1 | IEM Rio Major (2022) |
| SK Gaming | 1 | ESL One Cologne (2016) |
| Team EnVyUs | 1 | DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca (2015) |
| Team LDLC.com | 1 | Dreamhack Winter (2014) |
| Team Spirit | 1 | Perfect World Shanghai Major (2024) |
| Virtus.pro | 1 | ESL One Katowice (2014) |
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