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Host a Counter-Strike 2 server for your friends

Counter-Strike 2 is on our roadmap, not in the launch catalog yet. Votes from the waitlist decide how fast it ships.

Host a Counter-Strike 2 server free
What you need
RAM
2-4 GB (about 60 GB disk)
Default server ports
27015
Protocol
UDP
Server OS
Windows, Linux
Typical group
5v5 + community modes

You never forward any of these. The agent connects outward to our relay; the game's ports stay on your machine.

License notes

Running a CS2 server requires a free game-server login token (GSLT) tied to your Steam account.

Why host Counter-Strike 2 with Multiplayer Rally

The most played game on Steam, with a huge community-server scene for surf, retake, and practice servers. Hosting needs a per-server Steam token and a chunk of disk, both of which the recipe walks you through.

  • Heavy server: Counter-Strike 2 is one of the bigger ones, around 2-4 GB (about 60 GB disk). You'll want a PC with that much RAM to spare on top of everything else.
  • Counter-Strike 2 is free to play, so nobody in your group has to buy anything to join your server.
  • Runs the official Counter-Strike 2 server on Windows, Linux. We download it from the publisher and keep the runtime patched.
  • Your Counter-Strike 2 world stays set up between sessions. The app handles restarts, updates, and the relay link so the squad can drop in whenever you're online.

How hosting Counter-Strike 2 works

  1. Step 01

    Install Multiplayer Rally

    One Windows app. It installs and manages the Counter-Strike 2 dedicated server for you. No command line, no config files.

  2. Step 02

    Pick Counter-Strike 2

    We set the ports, the settings, and the restart schedule. You pick the world name and who's allowed in.

  3. Step 03

    Share your link

    You get one address your friends paste into the game, and they're in. Nothing to install on their side, no port forwarding on yours.

Counter-Strike 2 hosting questions

Plan on 2-4 GB (about 60 GB disk) of free RAM for a friend-group server. Your PC needs that on top of whatever else it's running; the app checks before installing.

27015 (UDP). With Multiplayer Rally you don't forward any of them: the agent makes an outbound connection to our relay, and your friends connect to the relay address.

Yes, that's the whole point. The agent on your PC makes an outbound connection to our relay, so you never touch your router. Your friends connect to the relay address and the traffic is tunneled to your Counter-Strike 2 server. Nothing is exposed to the open internet.

Counter-Strike 2 is free to play, so your friends just install it and join. Nobody has to buy anything.

Counter-Strike 2 is on the roadmap behind the launch catalog. Joining the waitlist and naming it is a vote: demand decides the order we ship recipes.

Your PC is the server, so the world is offline until you turn it back on, then it's right where you left it. The agent restarts Counter-Strike 2 for you automatically. An always-on managed tier on our hardware comes later.

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