http://steamcharts.com/app/440 (PPD meaning Player Per Day, couldn't fit it all in the title)
Taken from a reddit thread, but looks like an interesting indication of growth from the recent updates. What does everyone think of this? any chance this will benefit the competitive scene?
It usually peaks because of the item economy, i.e. Smissmas, Halloween Fortress, this recent change was probably because of contracts and weapon skins, probably not because of the long-term promise of matchmaking.
But when that comes, we'll see a nice growth of people who want more than pubs.
Cs Go started to grow faster when Skins came out, we might witness the same for Tf2
The big advantage of skins is that you can see it in game, hats only others see unless you taunt, skins everybody including yourself sees, it potentially has more appeal than hats, so it could see an influx.
We normally see a large increase over summer, leading up to insomnia (whether that's coincidence or not IDK). This year we're a month out from insomnia and have already got a higher peak than last year.