This animation shows the most popular weapons with CS:GO pros

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive remains one of Steam’s most popular games, and its professional scene is still thriving. It’s the pros and which of the game’s weapons they prefer that often drive tweaks and changes to the game, and this animated chart shows how their preferences have changed over time.

YouTuber SkelliBoi uploaded the animation to YouTube Friday, and it’s a nice little piece of design. Each weapon is shown on a bar representing the percentage of kills it’s responsible for, which a color corresponding to the side the weapon is available on – terrorists or counter-terrorists.

SkelliBoi also notes the release of patches that change weapon properties or introduce new weapons to the game. You can watch the chart run all the way from September 2012 to April 9, 2019.

While it’s interesting to see how different weapons have entered and left the meta, what’s perhaps most notable is the consistently massive popularity of the workhorse AK-47. That weapon has remained the top choice for terrorists since Counter-Strike: Global Offensive launched, maintaining at least a 30% share of pro-level kills – usually double that of whatever’s in second place.

Here’s the full video:

It’s remarkable how if anything, CS:GO’s weapon meta has remained so stable over the course of nearly seven years of professional play. Sure, there have been a few shifts, but generally speaking, it seems the pros settle in on a particular set of weapons and then tend to stick to that, often even after a patch is deployed that changes weapon stats.

SkelliBoi has some other interesting animated graphs on CS:GO, so it’s worth looking around his channel if you’re interested in this kind of data presentation.