Valve banned nearly a million bot accounts in CS2 in one day

Counter-Strike 2 has seen one of the largest ban waves in recent memory—according to developer Valve, over 960,000 accounts linked to bot farms have been banned. The bans began on March 26 and have been ongoing for 24 hours.
Large-scale cleanup of bot farms
According to a Valve employee, the ban was the result of a major investigation, which the community also participated in. It was thanks to player reports that large-scale bot networks were uncovered that were farming cases through Armory Pass.
The developers even called for continued support:
If you want to report bots, please write to csgoteamfeedback@valvesoftware.com with the subject “Farming Bot Report”.
 Valve

 
Online activity plummeted after bans
Interestingly, almost immediately after this ban wave, the game saw a sharp drop in online traffic. In a short period of time, the player base dropped by approximately 400,000.
This once again confirms how large a percentage of the online population could be made up of bot farms that artificially inflate activity in the game.

Is the reason the future Armory?

The community is actively discussing whether these bans may be related to preparations for the upcoming Armory update. It was through this system that bots were massively farming cases, which impacted the game’s economy.

Therefore, Valve probably decided to “cleanse” the market in advance of possible changes.

Valve has taken the bot farm problem in CS2 seriously. Banning nearly a million accounts isn’t just a targeted intervention, but a full-scale purge.

If the trend continues, it could:

• significantly impact the economics of cases
• make matchmaking cleaner
• reduce the amount of fake online content

It looks like the fight against bots in CS2 is reaching a new level.