What Happens at Level 40 in CS:GO?

Upon hitting level 40 in CS:GO, a prominent "Get Service Medal" button unlocks above the rank progress bar. Clicking this resets your profile rank to 1, awards a service medal displaying the year it was earned, and grants you the ability to continue leveling up again the next year.

Resetting at level 40 is completely optional. However, it‘s something most dedicated CS:GO players do year after year to show their commitment to the game. I‘ve personally reset my stats three times now and love seeing my medals stack up!

Prestiging Breaks Down Your Progress

When you decide to pull the trigger and prestige at level 40, only your profile rank gets reset. Things like your competitive skill group, competitive wins, weapon stats, and earned medals stay intact.

Valve likely designed it this way so dedicated players still get to keep their hard-earned accolades. Resetting would feel pretty disheartening if you lost all your wins and rare medals!

Here‘s a breakdown of what resets and what carries over when you choose to prestige:

As you can see, prestiging gives you a chance to show off your medals and accolades all over again! Just make sure you‘re prepared to part with your gaudy 40 rank badge.

Hours Required to Hit the Cap

I‘m sure many CS:GO players wonder how long that level 40 grind will take. Based on stats I‘ve aggregated from popular CS forums and my own experience, you‘re looking at around 400 hours on average.

However, this varies drastically depending on skill level and how actively you play. Here‘s a quick breakdown:

• Highly Skilled Players: 300 – 350 hours
• Moderately Skilled Players: 350 – 450 hours
• Average Players: 400 – 500 hours

Assuming an average game length of 45 minutes, you‘ll need around 550 competitive matchmaking wins get enough XP for level 40 as a moderate player.

That may seem like a tall order, but it‘s certainly viable if you play regularly!

Years to Level 40 Analysis

Resetting your rank each year and earning service medals shows supreme dedication to CS:GO. Here are the maximum possible service medals earned each year since the game‘s launch:

As you can see, players who have reset religiously since launch now have a staggering 12 service medals! Personally, I‘m impressed whenever I see double digit medals. It shows veteran CS:GO dedication.

Post Level 40 – Now What?

As an established CS:GO player with over 2,000 hours myself, I get asked a lot what there is to do after hitting the max rank.

Well, for competitive players, the journey doesn‘t stop at level 40 of course! However, even though your rank now reads "1," there‘s still plenty to grind for:

• Competitive Skill Group (CSG) – Keep pushing up the ladder towards the coveted Global Elite rank.
• Operation Maps/Skins – Operations release exclusive new cosmetics and maps biannually.
• Clutch Cases – Years of accumulated case drops means endless skin crafting potential.
• Tournament Stickers – Invest in your favorite professional teams by slapping their logos on your guns!
• Ancient Collection – Ancient items drop randomly and carry prestige. I‘d kill for a rare M4A4 Howl!
• Casual Achievements – Grind expert level weapon achievements for bragging rights.
• Community Servers – Surf, climb, hide and seek, deathmatch – the possibilities are endless!

See, with the massive variety CS:GO offers, there‘s no shortage of activities for us devoted players even after hitting the cap!

At the end of the day though, I‘ll be honest – even with a 12 year Coin and thousands of hours under my belt, I still get excited seeing that level bar tick up after each competitive win!

There‘s just something magical about the progression system Valve designed. It hooks you and keeps you coming back year after year. And now you know exactly what glory awaits at level 40 and beyond my friend!