HLTV Names the Most Popular CS2 Players by Number of Fans

HLTV has published a list of the most popular player profiles in Counter-Strike 2. The ranking is based on the number of users who added esports players to their favorites on the website. The leader of the list is Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, whose profile has more than 42,000 followers. This is almost twice as many as his closest competitor.

Second place went to Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, followed by more than 24,000 HLTV users. Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov ranked third with nearly 24,000 followers. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Danil “donk” Kryshkovets also made the top five. The Team Spirit player took fifth place with just over 21,000 fans.

The top ten also included FalleN, ropz, dev1ce, Twistzz, and rain. As a result, the list brought together both active stars of the modern scene and players who have remained important figures for the Counter-Strike community for many years.

Interestingly, ranking leader s1mple recently returned to the center of audience attention. His latest tournament was IEM Atlanta 2026, where he faced ZywOo’s team in his very first match. More than 600,000 viewers watched the game, and in terms of popularity it even surpassed the grand final of the tournament between NAVI and GamerLegion.

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This ranking clearly reflects not only players’ competitive achievements, but also who currently attracts the greatest interest from the CS2 audience.