How to watch CS2 demos

Last updated October 10, 2026

There are two ways to watch a CS2 demo: in the game's own demo player, or without opening the game at all, on a 2D radar in your browser. Here are both, step by step.

Watch in your browser (no game needed)

Sign in with Steam.
Click Upload & analyze and pick your .dem file, or a zip, rar, 7z, gz, bz2 or zst archive that contains it. If the archive holds several maps, each one is added as its own demo.
The demo is processed in a few seconds and opens on a 2D radar: players and where they look, smokes, molotovs, flashes, HE grenades and the bomb.

Use the round buttons on the timeline to jump to any round. Shortcuts: Space play/pause, ← → 5 seconds back/forward (15 with Shift), [ ] previous/next round, 1 2 4 speed.

The Decision points tab lists opening duels, untraded deaths, clutches and flashes that blinded teammates. Click one and the radar jumps to 3 seconds before the moment and follows the player involved. More: CS2 2D demo viewer.

Watch in game

Your own matches (Premier and competitive)

In CS2, open the match list in the Watch menu, pick your match, download the demo and press watch. Download steps and where the files are saved: How to download CS2 demos.

Open any demo from the console

Set Settings → Game → Enable Developer Console to Yes.

Copy the demo into the game's csgo folder (default Windows install):

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\game\csgo

Open the console with ~ and type:
```
playdemo demo_name
```
You can leave out the .dem extension. Matches the game downloaded are in the replays folder: playdemo replays/match730_...

Playback controls

What you want	How
Open the demo controls (play, pause, scrub)	`Shift` + `F2`
Speed up or slow down	`demo_timescale 2` (normal speed: `1`)
Go to a specific tick	`demo_gototick 25000`
Pause / resume	`demo_pause` / `demo_resume`

Common problems

The demo won't open in game, or says "failed to parse message"

A demo recorded on a different game version may stop playing in game after an update, and a file that didn't download completely shows similar errors. The 2D viewer reads demos independently of the game, so it can often still open them.

playdemo can't find the file

The path is relative to the game\csgo folder. Type the exact file name without the extension; demos the game downloaded start with match730_ and live in replays.

Which one should you use?

For tactical review (positions, rotations, utility timing) the 2D radar is faster: you see all 10 players at once. For aim, crosshair placement and one player's point of view, the in-game demo is better. Using both works best: find the mistake on the radar, then open the same tick in game with demo_gototick if you need the first-person view.