- 25 Premier wins
- Colour = highest rating
- 1 bar per 25 wins, max 5
- Leaderboards: top 1,000
Every Premier season ends with a season medal for the players who put in the work — a coin on your profile whose colour shows how high you climbed and whose bars show how much you played. Valve's rule is simple, but two details catch players out every season: the colour follows your highest rating, not your last, and the rating has to be active when the season closes. This guide covers the full rule as Valve stated it for Seasons Two to Four, how the bars and colours work, and the Premier leaderboards. Checked 2026-10-15.
Short answer: to earn a Premier season medal you need an account in good standing, 25 Premier match wins, an active CS Rating when the season ends. The
medal's colour is the highest CS Rating you reached during the season, and it carries one bar for every 25 wins, up to 5.
Valve stated this rule for Seasons Two, Three and Four (most recently on 21 January 2026); it hasn't restated it for Season 5, though a
medal-bar bug fix on 9 July 2026 suggests the bars carry on.
Key takeaways
- 25 wins, not 25 matches. At a 50% win rate that's about 50 Premier matches in the season.
- Your peak sets the colour. Touch a new colour once and the medal keeps it, even if you drop later.
- Stay active to the end. The rating must be active when the season closes — a long break can hide it.
- Bars count wins: 25, 50, 75, 100 and 125 wins for one to five bars.
- Leaderboards are separate: the top 1,000 Prime players of each region, on 9 boards.
What you need for the medal
- An account in good standing
Valve doesn’t define it further — a banned account clearly isn’t.
- 25 Premier match wins
Only wins count — a 25-win season can take 45 matches or 60 depending on how you play.
- An active CS Rating when the season ends
Your CS Rating has to be showing, not hidden, when the season closes.
Valve's own words for the condition are "an account in good standing, 25 Premier match wins, and an active CSR at the end of the season" ("The Fourth Season", 21 January 2026). The same rule ran in Seasons Two and Three.
What decides the colour
The colour is the highest CS Rating you reached during the season. Premier's colour tiers are 5,000 points wide, so the medal shows the highest tier you touched during the season. Valve's notes add that promotion and relegation matches happen only at those colour boundaries.
| Season high | CS Rating | Players in that band (July 2026 sample) |
|---|---|---|
| Gray | 1,000–4,999 | 18.8% |
| Light Blue | 5,000–9,999 | 22.4% |
| Blue | 10,000–14,999 | 26.4% |
| Purple | 15,000–19,999 | 20.7% |
| Pink | 20,000–24,999 | 9.5% |
| Red | 25,000–29,999 | 2.2% |
| Gold | 30,000+ | 0.1% |
Band shares are Leetify's July 2026 sample via Esports Tales — Valve publishes no distribution. More in the rank distribution guide.
The bars: wins, not rating
| Premier wins in the season | Bars | Matches at a 50% win rate | At 55% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 1 | ~50 | ~46 |
| 50 | 2 | ~100 | ~91 |
| 75 | 3 | ~150 | ~137 |
| 100 | 4 | ~200 | ~182 |
| 125 | 5 | ~250 | ~228 |
Where are you now? The Premier medal tracker takes your wins and season high and shows your colour, your bars and the wins a week you need before our season-end estimate.
"An active rating at the end"
This is the clause that costs players a medal they'd earned. Valve re-establishes a Premier rating after a period of inactivity — the number is hidden until you win again — and it publishes no timer for when that happens. A rating hidden on closing day isn't active. If you've been away for a few weeks near the end of a season, play and win a Premier match before it closes. The details are in CS2 rank decay explained, and our estimate for the Season 5 close (January 2027) is in the Season 5 guide.
How the Premier leaderboards work
- Who's on them: Prime players who play Premier, once they're among the top 1,000 in their region. Players without Prime aren't eligible.
- 9 boards: Friends, World, Africa, Asia, Australia, China, Europe, North America, South America — the World board is the top 1,000 worldwide; Friends tracks your friends list.
- Your region isn't a choice: it's set by the location of the servers you play on the most.
- Names: leaderboard names are reviewed by moderation staff — no advertising — and locked for the rest of the season once approved.
Short of wins or a colour? Premier net wins add
wins toward your 25 — losses don't count against the order — and a
Premier boost takes your season high to the colour you want the
medal to show. Verified pros, proof in your order chat.
Sources
- Valve — "The Fourth Season" (21 January 2026) (colour = highest CS Rating of the season; one bar per 25 wins up to five; good standing, 25 Premier wins and an active CSR at season end)
- Valve — Season Three post (15 July 2025) · "Seasons Change" (Season Two) · 9 July 2026 update (medal-bar fix)
- Steam Support — Counter-Strike 2 Leaderboards (eligibility, nine boards, region rule, name moderation) · CS2 release notes (promotion matches at colour boundaries; re-establishing a rating after inactivity)
- Checked 2026-10-15.
All free tools: calculators, percentiles & season countdowns →
FAQ
Common questions
How many wins do you need for the CS2 Premier medal?
25 Premier wins in the season. Valve's rule for Seasons Two to Four also asks for an account in good standing and an active CS Rating when the season ends; Valve hasn't restated the rule for Season 5.
What decides the colour of the Premier medal?
The highest CS Rating you reach during the season, not your rating on the last day. Touch Red (25,000) once and, under Valve's Seasons Two to Four rule, the medal is red even if you finish lower.
What do the bars on the Premier medal mean?
Your total Premier wins that season: one bar for every 25 wins, up to five bars at 125 wins.
How do CS2 Premier leaderboards work?
Prime players who play Premier appear on public leaderboards when they're among the top 1,000 players in their region. There are nine boards — Friends, World and seven regions — and your region is set by the servers you play on most; you can't choose it.
Ready to climb?
Premier Net Wins
−5%Wins toward your 25 — losses don't count against the order.
from $2.00$1.90Live price →
Premier Rating Boost
−5%Reach the colour you want the medal to show.
from $3.50$3.32Live price →
Premier Placement Matches
−5%Start the season rated, then count to 25.
from $3.25$3.09Live price →
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