Strange things are happening in Counter-Strike 2. The game’s latest update includes several major changes, including an all-new game mode called Rush Hour, which the patch notes describe as a “fast-paced 3v3 queued mode.” Other notable additions include rule changes around how map bans work and big updates to bullet and blood visual effects.
While Valve announced all these bells and whistles ahead of time, the company also snuck in a very unexpected change to its popular first-person shooter: You can now raise pet chickens.
Counter-Strike 2 players now have a chance to get an egg in their weekly drops. Over time, these eggs will hatch into a clucking little pet that comes in a variety of skins. These little guys start as chicks and eventually grow into different kinds of adults, including a “regular,” Polish, or Silkie chicken, each in multiple possible colors.
Most surprisingly, this addition isn’t a means to juice up Counter-Strike 2’s notorious skin market, because these pets are completely untradeable. After hatching a chicken, players can name it, take pictures with it, and let it sit on their shoulder on the loadout screen. These little dudes can apparently even accompany players into lobbies. Unfortunately, the good times don’t last forever. These chickens will leave the nest when they’re fully grown, forcing players to start from scratch with a new pet.
How have players reacted?
While some players are excited about finding and raising a new friend, there’s a catch. If you don’t actively feed your pet by logging into the game regularly, they abandon you. That’s rough, but it’s a bit less depressing than in Tamagotchi, where these guys straight up die when neglected.
Some have responded to the chicken situation a bit cynically. “They saw the declining player numbers and made [a] ‘play every week to feed your chicken or it dies’ minigame,” one Reddit user wrote. While Counter-Strike 2 remains the most played game on Steam, with a massive 24-hour peak of over 1.4 million concurrent players, last month the game dropped to its lowest peak player count since January 2024. “Anything but proper anti-cheat holy fuck what are we even doing,” another Redditor wrote. Many have pointed to widespread cheating as the main reason players are getting fed up with the game. As cute as these chicken companions are, they seem unlikely to move the needle compared to these bigger problems.
Counter-Strike 2 is free to play on SteamOS and Windows PC.