CS2 Premier Season 4 Start Date Confirmed: Map Changes, Rating Reset (Jan 2026)

The Counter-Strike franchise has been famous for years now for its awesome and bustling competitive scene. The fast-paced, action-packed gameplay that’s been a staple of the series has proven to be a great source of entertainment, and over the decades a vast esports network has grown around it.

While many players dream of making big bucks from CS2, you don’t need to be a pro to enjoy the competitive side of the Counter-Strike franchise. One of the main ways to play competitive mode in CS2 is to queue up for CS2 premier mode.

On January 21, 2026, CS2 Premier Season 4 launched, bringing a range of new features and a fresh start for every player. Here’s everything you need to know about the Premier Season 4 start date and what the season changed.

Remember, if you ever want new CS skins to prepare for the next premier season, make sure to head over to SkinsMonkey.com, where you can trade CS2 skins at any time!

Key Takeaways:

• Season 4 launched on January 21, 2026 (already January 22 in Asia and Australia), shortly after Season 3 ended on January 19.

• The new season brought a Premier Rating reset (ratings are recalibrated and you need 10 Premier wins to see yours again) and a refreshed Active Duty map pool that brought back Anubis and removed Train, while keeping Ancient, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, and Overpass. The MP7, MP5-SD and PP-Bizon also got small balance tweaks.

• Anubis was the map to practice for an early advantage, and the fresh season was a prime opportunity for rank climbing while the hype around IEM Kraków was building.

What Are CS2 Premier Seasons?

In CS:GO, players had a single rank that reflected their performance in ranked matches against players of a similar skill level. That changed with the release of CS2, which split the ranked system into two separate modes: premier and competitive, each with its own separate CS2 rank.

The Premier ranked mode is also separated into seasons, which change on a semi-regular basis. This is meant to keep the competitive gameplay fresh, as each Premier season adds balance tweaks, reworks, and a new active duty map pool. When a season ends, every CS2 Premier rating is recalibrated, and players who met the requirements receive a Premier medal whose color shows the highest rating they reached during the season.

CS2 Premier Season 4 Start Date Confirmed January 21–22, 2026

Anubis CHANGED, MP7 is BUFFED, and Subtick Improvements?!?! | Season 4 CS2 Updateaustincs on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

CS2 Premier Season 3 ended on January 19, and Season 4 went live on January 21, 2026, at around 11:00 PM UTC, so depending on your time zone it started on January 21 or 22. Here’s the approximate start time for your region:

Region	Date	Premier Season 4 start time (Approx)
UTC	Wed, Jan 21	11:00 PM
Europe (CET)	Wed, Jan 21	around midnight
UK (GMT)	Wed, Jan 21	11:00 PM
US East (EST)	Wed, Jan 21	6:00 PM
US West (PST)	Wed, Jan 21	3:00 PM
Asia (JST)	Thu, Jan 22	8:00 AM
Australia (AEDT)	Thu, Jan 22	10:00 AM
Brazil (BRT)	Wed, Jan 21	8:00 PM

Season 3 End & Medal Requirements

To claim the exclusive Season 3 Premier Medal, players must have met two strict criteria: a minimum of 25 Premier wins during the season and a visible CS Rating (CSR) at the moment the season ended. Because CS2 ranks expire after periods of inactivity, many players found themselves scrambling to win a “recalibration” match in the final hours to ensure their rating was active and their rewards were secured.

The Season 3 medal serves as a permanent trophy of your performance, with its color reflecting the highest rating tier you achieved throughout the season (e.g., Grey, Light Blue, Blue, Purple, Pink, Red, or Gold). Additionally, the medal features a progressive bar system, allowing for easy visual identification of your final standing; every 25 wins adds a bar to the design, up to a maximum of five bars for 125+ wins. If you met these requirements, your medal should now be visible in your inventory, marking your rank and dedication before the global leaderboard reset for Season 4.

The same rules applied to the Season 4 medal: an account in good standing, 25 Premier wins, and an active CS Rating when the season ended.

Active Map Pool Changes, Anubis Returns

One of the most important changes in each Premier season is the Active Duty map pool update. While there are many different maps available in the game, including some really wacky CS2 community maps, the active map pool is meant to select the best and most balanced maps in CS2 to facilitate fair gameplay.

This time around, two important changes came into play: Train was removed from the pool, and Anubis, another player favorite, returned in its place with several layout changes.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the Active Duty map pool in Premier Season 4:

Map	Status
Ancient	Active
Anubis	Added
Dust II	Active
Inferno	Active
Mirage	Active
Nuke	Active
Overpass	Active
Train	Removed

Harlequin Collection & Achroma Collection Skins

Although the gameplay is why players stick around, trading CS2 skins is an important part of the game. After all, many gamers worldwide make money on CS2 by buying and selling skins, and with CS2 premier season 4 Valve added the Harlequin Collection to the game, with its wild range of visually impressive skins. As well as the second Achroma Collection, featuring only black-and-white skins. You can get these skins from your weekly care package simply by playing the game.

The full list of Harlequin collection skins & Achroma collection feature the following weapon finishes:

Harlequin Collection

Classified

• M4A1-S | Party Animal

Restricted

• AWP | Exothermic

• USP-S | Sleeping Potion

Mil-Spec

• Five-SeveN | Fraise Crane

• Galil AR | Sky Mandala

• UMP-45 | Warm Blooded

• Zeus x27 | Earth Mandala

Industrial Grade

• MP5-SD | Picnic

• MP7 | Coral Paisley

• SSG 08 | Calligrafaux

• Tec-9 | Banana Leaf

• XM1014 | XoooM

Consumer Grade

• CZ75-Auto | Honey Paisley

• FAMAS | Byproduct

• MP9 | Bee-Tron

• PP-Bizon | Thermal Currents

• R8 Revolver | Mauve Aside

• SG 553 | Safari Print

• Sawed-Off | Crimson Batik

Achroma Collection

Classified

• AWP | The End

Restricted

• AK-47 | Breakthrough

• Glock-18 | Trace Lock

Mil-Spec

• AUG | Creep

• Desert Eagle | The Daily Deagle

• P2000 | Grip Tape

• P90 | Aeolian Light

Industrial Grade

• FAMAS | Vendetta

• M4A4 | Aeolian Dark

• MAC-10 | Snow Splash

• MP5-SD | Snow Splash

• R8 Revolver | Dark Chamber

Consumer Grade

• Dual Berettas | Silver Pour

• M249 | Sleet

• MP9 | Dizzy

• Nova | Currents

• P250 | Sleet

• PP-Bizon | Bizoom

• SCAR-20 | Zinc

• SSG 08 | Sans Comic

In addition, premier season 4 introduced a brand new luxurious AK-47 skin, the AK-47 | Aphrodite, a Limited Edition item in the Armory.

In-game, you unlock this AK-47 skin with stars earned through the Armory Pass; otherwise, you have to get it from another player.

Full list of changes

We covered the most important changes and tweaks added in premier season 4, but like many other CS2 patches, this one also included a large number of smaller fixes to the game. Here’s the full list of patch notes:

[ PREMIER ]

• Premier Season Four has begun

• Added Anubis to the Active Duty Map Pool

• Removed Train from the Active Duty Map Pool

[ COMPETITIVE ]

• Adjusted underlying per-map competitive matchmaking rank values. Existing per-map competitive Skill Groups have been expired, and will be displayed again once the player obtains the required number of wins

[ GAMEPLAY ]

• Minor adjustments to the MP7 and MP5-SD:

  • Slightly increased damage

  • Slightly reduced damage fall-off

  • Reduced price by $100.

• Reduced price of the PP-Bizon by $100.

• Jump changes:

  • Landing time is now calculated with subtick precision

  • Jumping and landing no longer affect stamina. The landing speed penalty is now a simple function of landing time

  • Any jump press within sv_bhop_time_window centered on the landing time that hasn’t been penalized by sv_jump_spam_penalty_time will be treated as a successful bunnyhop

  • Legacy jump behavior can be restored on private servers with sv_legacy_jump

• Map Guides can now be loaded in online games of casual and retakes (via the ESC menu)

[ SOUND ] 

• Reduced audio output latency

• Higher fidelity knife draw and inspect sounds

• Weapon, knife and utility draw sounds no longer overlap when switching quickly between them

• Knife impact sounds are now unique based on primary fire or alt fire swings as well as front and rear attacks. This reflects the different damage amounts dealt with each attack 

• Ambient sounds no longer restart from the beginning when transitioning between zones

[ WEEKLY CARE PACKAGE ]

• Added two all-new weapon collections to the Weekly Care Package drop list: Harlequin, Achroma

• Removed four weapon collections from the Weekly Care Package drop list: Safehouse, Dust 2, 2018 Nuke Collection, and the 2018 Inferno Collection

[ ARMORY ]

• Added a new Limited Edition Item: the AK47 | Aphrodite

[ MISC ]

• Increased material fidelity on some of the base guns:

  • Ak47

  • Aug

  • AWP

  • Berettas

  • Deagle

  • Galil

  • Mac-10

  • MP7

  • P250

  • Tec9

  • USP-S

  • Bizon

  • Cz75a

  • Famas

  • MP9

• Changed voice status behavior to always show a mic for local player if mic is open 

• Fixed a bug related to Deathcam intersection

• Fixed some cases where the player would collide with internal edges while sliding along a ramp in surf mode

• Improved the resolution of the PVS for some static level geometry

• Fixed some small interpenetrations in Butterfly Knife animations

• Fixed a case where blood decals weren’t appearing

[ MAP SCRIPTING ]

• Fixed a bug where activator was sometimes incorrect for func_door outputs OnOpen, OnFullyOpen, OnClose, and OnFullyClosed

  • Added BaseModelEntity.GetModelName

  • Added BaseModelEntity.GetModelScale

  • Added BaseModelEntity.GetColor

  • Added BaseModelEntity.IsGlowing

[ ENGINE ]

• Updated engine code to the latest version of Source 2.

[ MAPS ]

• Removed community maps: Golden, Palacio, Agency, and Rooftop from all game modes

• Added community maps Warden, Stronghold, and Alpine to Competitive, Casual, and Deathmatch modes

• Added community maps Sanctum and Poseidon to Wingman mode

Anubis

• Bridge drop moved near Mid Doors

• Mid doors orientation reversed

• Hole added between E-box and Back of B

• Bombsite A crates moved up steps on to Walkway

• Scaffolding added to pillar on Bombsite A

In Conclusion

Premier Season 4 was certainly a big change to the game, but the balance changes will hopefully provide an interesting competitive environment. If you want to keep up with new Premier seasons and updates, make sure to regularly check out our blog, where we post more CS news, guides, top lists, and even offer free CS skins giveaways!

If you enjoyed this article, make sure you check out some of our other blog posts, including:

• Best CS2 skins

• What Are The Case Hardened Skins?

• Most Expensive CS2 Knife Skins

• Karambit blue gem

• All Karambit Cases

FAQ

Was this article helpful?One tap. It tells us what to update first.

Be the first to rate this article.

What was missing?Prices are outdatedDidn't answer my questionToo longSomething else

Thanks, noted. Alex reads these before every update.