CS2 Demo Guide – How to Watch CS2 Replays

One of the easiest ways to improve your gameplay in CS2 is simply by watching your replays, also known as demos. Watching your demos allows you to spot your mistakes, helping you to improve in future matches. Or maybe you just want to replay a sick clip… This article will cover what the CS2 demo is, why you should use the CS2 demo, how to access the demo viewer in the game, and how to watch them past the 48-hour time limit.

What is the Replay Demo?

The replay demo in CS2 is a recorded file of a match, including the movements, action, and in-game events from the perspective of all ten players. As opposed to simply recording your own screen, watching demos allows you more freedom to shift between the perspectives of all players interactively.

Why Watch Your Own Matches?

Watching demo matches is crucial to improving yourself in CS. Here are just some reasons why you may want to watch your own demos.

1. Identify Mistakes – Reviewing demos allows you to catch your own mistakes that may have been unnoticed during live play. This might include poor positioning, bad cross-hair placement, or other small things not noticed in the heat of the moment.
2. Learning New Strategies – If you see something cool in a recent game, such as a new timing or unique smoke lineup, full demo matches allow you to quickly find it and learn new tricks.
3. Learn the Map – The demo viewer is especially useful to new players, as they’re often unfamiliar with new maps. Viewing the game recordings allows you to quickly learn the timings of crucial areas of the map.
4. Learning from Pros – Downloading the files of pro matches can provide insight into more advanced strategies and techniques to implement into your own games.
5. Improve Team Coordination – If you play in a five-stack, you can easily improve your team’s synergy by watching demos to identify areas for improvement in either communication or strategy.
6. Record Clips – Whether it’s an ace or sick flick, the demo viewer provides an easy way to replay the moment and record it.

How to Access the Demo In-Game

Accessing your demos in CS2 is super straightforward, but unfortunately, the games must be within a 48-hour period to access the demo. After this, you’ll have to refer to the method below, which is slightly more complicated.

1. Open CS2 – Launch the game and navigate to the main menu
2. Go to the ‘Watch’ Tab – This tab is located at the top-left of your screen by default, identified by the TV icon.
3. Matchmaking History – In this section, you’ll see a list of your recent matches. To access all the matches, you’ll have to refer to the method below. In this list, select the match you want to review
4. Download and Play – Once you’ve selected the match you want to review, click the download button at the bottom right of your screen. This will download the demo file. Once downloaded, simply click the play button located to the right.
5. Open Demo UI – To open the list of tools to help you navigate through your demo, you’ll either have to use the command console or simply press Shift + F12. By default, the console is bound to the tilde key (~). Once your console is open, simply type in the command “demoui” ignoring the quotes. If your console is not opening, follow these quick steps.
   1. Navigate to game settings (gear icon at the top left)
   2. Navigate to ‘Game Settings’
   3. Find ‘Enable Developer Console’ and toggle it to ‘Yes’

While watching replays, you can use various tools to navigate the match. Using the tools in the UI, you can pause, fast forward, rewind, and switch perspectives to get a comprehensive view of the game.

How to Download Replays After 48 Hours

Unfortunately, after 48 hours, you lose the ability to download demos of matches from the game itself. Instead, follow these steps.

1. Open the Steam Website – This first step to accessing your demo must be performed in an online browser, not the Steam app. You can simply click on the link here: https://steamcommunity.com/. Once you’ve opened the tab, sign in.
2. Navigate to the ‘Games’ Menu – This tab is located at the top of your screen, within your Steam username. Hovering over it will open a drop-down menu from which you may select ‘Games.’
3. Open Personal Game Data – After opening the ‘Games’ tab, you should see a screen showing your most recently played games. Find CS2 within this list, and navigate to the ‘My Game Stats’ tab. This should be a button on the bottom of the CS2 box. Under this drop-down menu, click on the bottom button named ‘Username Personal Game Data.’
4. Find your Match – At the top of your screen, you should see an extensive list of game modes. Click on the category in which the match you want to rewatch is located. For example, if you want to review premier matches, simply click on the premier matches button. Once you’re in this menu, scroll down until you find the match you want to review.
5. Download and Extract the File – To download the match, click on the download button located underneath the image of the map of your match near the list of game stats. Download this file to your desktop. Then, using an extracting tool, extract this file and rename it so that it’s easier to locate in the future. Trustworthy file extractors you can use for this step include 7-Zip, which you can easily download online. Explore other options, but make sure they are trustworthy.
6. Move the Downloaded Match to Your CS2 File – Within the file explorer, locate the file “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\game\csgo”. Then, simply move your match file into this folder.
7. Play the Demo – Now, with all prior steps completed correctly, simply launch CS2, open your console, and type in “playdemo [demo file name]”. When typing this into the console, ignore the quotations and brackets. After you load in, you’re done! To open the demo viewer UI, enter “demoui” into the command console or press Shift + F12. For more specific information, refer to the steps above titled “Open Demo UI” under the “How to Access the Demo In-Game” subsection. In this demo UI, you can speed up/slow down the replay, play/pause, skip ahead or rewind 15 seconds, choose a playback speed, and also have access to the timestamp of the match.

Wrapping Up!

Learning how to fully utilize the demo viewer is a crucial skill to learn in CS2, either for improving your games or to clip cool moments. The methods listed in this article are specified for Windows but can be adapted for other gaming platforms/softwares. Continue improving, and have fun out there!