How To Watch Counter Strike Demo

Every player wants to improve their gameplay in Counter-Strike, and one of the best ways to do so is to watch and learn. Most professional players spend tons of time downloading demos of other players and teams, and then watching them to analyze movements and learn something new. 

If you’re looking to reach the top level, we highly recommend downloading professional demos to learn a thing or two and uncover strategies you can apply to your own gameplay. In this article, we’ll discuss how to watch CS:GO demos.

How To Watch CS:GO Demo

Let’s get straight into the article and teach you how you can watch a CS:GO demo. We’ll go through the entire process, from finding it, moving the file, and ultimately loading into the game to watch it. 

Finding And Downloading Demos

The first step in this entire process is to find the demo you are looking for. If you want to learn from the best, we recommend downloading demos from HLTV.org, which is the number one Counter-Strike esports portal where you can find all relevant matches. On each individual match page, you will have the option to download the demo. 

Here’s how you can find and download a demo through HLTV.org:

1. Go to the official HLTV.org website.
2. Look for the specific match you want to watch. You can use the search bar or manually look for matches yourself – the website is equipped with tons of filters to narrow your search.
3. Once you have found a match, go to the match page. 
4. Under the “Rewatch” section, you will see hyperlinks to download the demos for each individual map of the series. 

Alternatively, you can also download your own FACEIT demos to learn from your mistakes. This is another effective way to correct your errors and improve at the game.

If you want to download your own FACEIT demos, follow the step below:

1. Go to the official FACEIT website and log in to your account. 
2. Next, go to your match history to see your games. 
3. Look for the match you would like to rewatch. 
4. Go to the “Overview” section of the match page. 
5. In the middle, click on the “Watch Demo” button.

If you have followed the steps properly for any of these two methods, your browser should prompt a zip file download. Follow the next step below.

CS:GO Where To Put Demo Folders

Once you have downloaded the zip file, you can place it on your desktop in the meantime. However, we must eventually move it into the CS:GO folder.

If you have the common question of, “where is the CS:GO demo folder?” here’s how you can navigate to the CS:GO folder:

1. Open your Steam desktop client.
2. Go to your Steam Library. 
3. Look for Counter-Strike, right-click it, and you should see a bunch of options show up.
4. Hover over “Manage” and then click on “Browse Local Files”.
5. Once your folder opens, go to game > csgo.

The file path for this should be: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\game\csgo

Once you have located the CS:GO file, we can now extract the demo file into it:

1. Drag the zip file from your desktop or browser into the CS:GO file. 
2. Next, right-click the zip file and click “Extract File”.
3. This step is optional, but we recommend renaming the file into something you can remember – trust us, you’ll thank us later.

And that’s pretty much the hardest part of this entire process. Now that everything is set up, let’s go to the final step. 

How To Play CS:GO Demo

Finally, the last thing to do is to load into the demo and watch the game. 

Here is how you can play the CS:GO demo you just downloaded:

1. Launch Counter-Strike.
2. Open your developer console by pressing the “~” key. 
3. Next, type in the command “playdemo [REPLAY NAME]”.
4. Once you’re good to go, hit your Enter key.

Of course, you will replace [REPLAY NAME] with the name of the demo file. This is why we suggested you rename the file beforehand, but you can always check it back in your CS:GO folder if you still have it opened. 

Understanding Demo Controls

Now that we have successfully loaded into the replay, let’s go over the basics of demo controls that will help you speed up, pause, and control the replay at your own pace. 

Opening Demo UI

The demo UI is the tool that allows you to control the demo. To open the demo UI, all you have to do is hold down Shift + F2.

The demo UI will bring up a bunch of control options that allows you to:

• Pause and play the demo.
• Speed up or slow down the demo in 0.25x, 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 4x, or 8x.
• Skip through rounds.
• Control a slider to skip through the demo quickly.

Changing Player POVs

When watching a demo, you will have access to the POVs (point of views) of every player in the match. 

To go through all the player POVs, you can simply click your left mouse button to go to the next player. Alternatively, each player has a dedicated number in the demo, from 1 to 0. You can press your number keys to go to a specific player defending on their number.

Useful Demo Commands

Other than the two basic demo controls we’ve discussed, you can also use demo console commands to enhance your viewing experience.

Here are some helpful demo commands you can consider using:

• spec_show_xray 1: This command will turn on the X-ray mode, allowing you to see players through walls during the demo. To turn X-ray mode off, use this command but switch the “1” value to “0”.
• spec_show_lineup 1: This command will turn on grenade lineup tracers, allowing you to see the flight path of grenades being thrown. This is a very useful command to learn new smoke and grenade lineups.
• cl_draw_only_deathnotices 1: This command will disable the kill feed on the top-right corner of your screen. This command can be very useful if you’re trying to record a cinematic video or fragmovie.