Strong anti-cheat, few cheaters
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews
“best servers on csgo hands down and best anti-cheat you can possibly use.”
Steam review · 93.1 h played ↗
ESEA
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Mixed · 69%Mixed · 69%ESEA2016Strategy
The verdict
ESEA is a paid CS:GO matchmaking client with strong anti-cheat and 128-tick servers, but reviewers cite dead queues, toxic teammates and invasive software. Skip it if you're a casual or low-ranked player.
Great for
High-ranked CS:GO players wanting a cheater-free, competitive, team-oriented environment
Main risk
Paying a subscription and then waiting ages (or forever) for a match
What players love
Higher-skilled, more serious players
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews
“ESEA is a gamesense factory, you will find yourself forced to learn economy, nades, angle clearing, map control, and strategy”
Steam review · 0.4 h played ↗
Good 128-tick servers
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“128-tick servers are the best imo, it feels much easier to hit shots than in MM.”
Steam review · 0.6 h played ↗
Helps you improve at CS
Mentioned in ~1 in 14 positive reviews
“After 20 hours played, my level in regular MM noticeably grew.”
Steam review · translated · 21.5 h played ↗
Useful stats, RWS and team features
Mentioned in ~1 in 14 positive reviews
“Advanced statistics (detailed statistics which is very useful to identify weaknesses and RWS”
Steam review · 36.5 h played ↗
Less toxic than MM or Faceit
Mentioned in ~1 in 17 positive reviews
“more competetive than matchmaking but nowhere near as toxic”
Steam review · 7.8 h played ↗
What players complain about
Very long or endless queues, dead playerbase
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews
“Dead. I waited about 50 minutes in queue and not found any game. wasted my money.”
Steam review · 8.8 h played ↗
Toxic community and bad karma system
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“played my first game of esea, top fragged and got called the n word about 12 times. way too toxic lmao”
Steam review · 1 h played ↗
Pay-to-play despite free listing, no refunds
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“Extremely misleading "Free-to-play" button, designed to get as many users downloading and potentially purchasing "premium"”
Steam review · 0.2 h played ↗
Intrusive spyware-like client and bitcoin scandal
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“ESEA had a driver installed on my computer that was preventing windows from starting up”
Steam review · 0.1 h played ↗
Poor rank balance and mismatched teams
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“Queuing up with C+ players against A and upwards almost every f*cking game.”
Steam review · 19.9 h played ↗
Bad admins and unfair bans
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 negative reviews
“Garbage admins who just ban u whenever they feel like it ran by a bunch of incompetent monkeys”
Steam review · 272.2 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Unsupported
Minimum
OSWindows 10
OSWindows 10
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