“There’s a rumor they’re doing an updated Mirage,” says CS2 dataminer GabeFollower

GabeFollower, a prominent dataminer and one of the best CS2 content creators, said in a recent interview that Valve might be working on a new version of Mirage.

Though Mirage never received a full-on overhaul, Valve did significantly tweak it over the years. In January 2020, for example, Valve added the bench in Mid to allow players to peek at Catwalk and self-boost themselves into Window. And, the switch from CS:GO to CS2 in 2023 created some new grenade lineups, especially for Mid.

But, according to GabeFollower, the CS2 developer might just keep Mirage as it is, rather than remaking it from scratch. Here’s a summary of this interview, which was translated by Steam Inventory Helper on X.

There’s a rumor they’re doing an updated Mirage. But unlike old leaks with big geometry changes, this time they want a Dust2-style approach — keep it as close to the original as possible, just refresh the visuals.

GabeFollower also said that Valve considered a Mirage remake a couple of years ago, with the usage of Half-Life: Alyx assets, but it never came to fruition.

Summary of the GabeFollower interview, translated by Steam Inventory Helper on X.

The reasons why Mirage should stay the same

Although these are just rumors, it makes sense to keep Mirage somewhat intact. The map is a classic for a reason, and those who love it would probably complain if the devs made some deep changes like they’ve done on Train, for example.

Additionally, it’s the best map for players who own a low-end or outdated gaming rig. CS2’s FPS is considerably higher on Mirage than it is on Ancient, for example.

Besides, Mirage is by far the most popular map in CS2’s rotation, having been there since its introduction to CS:GO in June 2013. According to FACEIT statistics from July, Mirage had a 32.12% pick rate on their platform. For comparison, the second-most-picked map was Dust2 with 22.59%.

Mirage was the community’s favorite map over Jul 21-Aug 21, 2025, per FACEIT. (Source)

Mirage has remained in the rotation and stands as the only map featured in all 22 Majors. And, it will surely stay for the StarLadder Budapest Major, which will kick off on November 24.

The last time that Valve remade a map was in 2024, when the developers released a new version of Train. Valve could also be making changes to include Cache in the map pool soon, as they bought it from Shawn “FMPONE” Snelling back in May.

Feature image credit: © Valve