As of 09/29/25, Valve re-added 1.40.8.8 as a beta option. As such, an easier alternative to this guide is to switch to this beta to play demos from before the animgraph2 update, however it might mess with your settings on the latest build when you switch back and you won't be able to play CS2 normally while in the beta. If you would rather have a separate copy of CS2 specifically for old demos, continue with this guide

In the update released on July 28 as part of the animgraph2 update, all saved match demos / replays were made incompatible with Counter-Strike 2 due to engine changes. This guide will (hopefully) allow you to make a new copy of CS2 that you can launch and use to play older game demos!

Trying to load outdated replays in the latest build causes errors

Do not expect to use this copy of CS2 for playing the game. It's an outdated build and should only be used to watch old matches. Launch CS2 from steam to play normally

1. On windows use WIN + R to load up the run command. Enter the following;

steam://open/console





This will open steam's console menu where we will input the following commands to download the needed files. It will be downloaded in two parts, a main folder and a Windows / Linux folder that we will copy alongside the main folder. Download the one labelled as Windows or Linux depending on your system. Also make sure that you have enough storage space for the downloaded files on the drive that you have steam installed. You will need around 55.6 to 61.8 GB to download the required files.

Main files: download_depot 730 2347770 5023020258185551340

Windows: download_depot 730 2347771 366892905078765270

Linux: download_depot 730 2347773 6261982168194353241

Go to the folder where these files are downloaded. For me it's "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\content\app_730" - and make a note of the file names. Make a new folder and name it whatever you want. We will copy our files here.

First, start by copying over the content from the main files folder into our new folder, then copy and paste the files from either Windows or Linux, whichever you previously installed into the same folder. Wait for the files to finish copying and move to the next step.

Now that we have our files copied to our new folder, navigate to: "FOLDERNAME\game\bin\win64\cs2.exe" or "FOLDERNAME\game\bin\linuxsteamrt64\-whatever Linux uses I don't use Linux-" and load the game. From there you will now see that the game is out of date and needs updating.





To copy your replays, copy them over from CS2's replay folder into our new CS2 folder "FOLDERNAME\game\csgo\replays"

You should now be able to load and watch old demos / replays from before the animgraph2 update using this copy of CS2