Which game engine powers Counter-Strike 2?

Source 2 powers Counter-Strike 2.

Counter-Strike 2 is built on Valve’s Source 2 engine, the successor to the original Source technology used by Counter-Strike: Source and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Valve used the engine transition to update rendering, lighting, map materials, smoke behavior, and networking systems.

The move to Source 2 was one of the defining technical changes in Counter-Strike 2. Volumetric smoke grenades, for example, interact with the environment and can be displaced by bullets and grenades. Maps also received visual updates, with some rebuilt more extensively than others.

GoldSrc is the older engine associated with the original Half-Life and early Counter-Strike versions. Source 2 should not be confused with Unreal Engine, which is made by Epic Games and does not power Counter-Strike 2. Counter-Strike 2 replaced Global Offensive as Valve’s primary Counter-Strike release in 2023.