How to Hide HUD in CS2/CSGO

Global Offensive is the penultimate fourth release of the game up to date. It came in 2012, eight years after the third one (Counter-Strike Source). It was fully replaced by Counter-Strike 2 in September 2023, but Global Offensive lovers still find a way to play it, although the options are limited. Here we will explain the HUD, what it contains, and how to get rid of HUD in CS:GO if you’re looking for ways to do it.

HUD stands for Heads Up Display, with the name taken from the displays used in modern aircraft. It contains all the essential information about the player: 

• Crosshair. The crosshair is the cross in the middle of the screen that represents the aim of the weapon.

• Health marker. Part of the HUD shows you how much health and armor you have left. 

• Weapons and ammunition. On the HUD you can also see how much ammo you have left and which weapon you are currently using.

• Money and equipment. The default screen shows how much money you have left and what equipment you have bought. 

• Radar. The radar is another feature of the HUD. It shows where you are at the moment and also shows shots taken by other players.

• Timer. The timer shows how much time you have left for each round. 

• Kill feed. The kill feed shows the latest kills. 

• Notifications. When HUD is enabled, notifications like the planting of the bomb will occur on the screen. 

• Scoreboard. You can access the scoreboard by pressing the Tab button. 

Top Reasons Why CS: GO Enthusiasts Remove HUD

The question comes up by itself, since it involves all the most important information about the player and the game being played: why would anyone want to get rid of HUD in CS: GO? Here we provide the top reasons: 

• Content creation. Creating content is one of the main reasons why would we remove HUD. Taking screenshots of weapon skins or other interesting in-game details, highlight reels, and streaming are some of the most popular content creations of CS: GO enthusiasts. Without so many colors, the picture will be clearer, and more aesthetic. It will almost certainly attract more attention from viewers.
• Immersive experience. Gamers may want to elevate their experience to another level. They can do it by removing the HUD overlay. It makes the game more realistic. Players have to lean more on their instincts to determine how much ammo, health, and armor they have left, although players usually react faster without disruptions. 
• Skill development. Hiding some of the most important features in the game is a viable strategy for skill development. Players will learn to monitor the ammo usage better, and rely on audio indicators throughout the game. Playing without the HUD is a more challenging way to do it, and it can be used for training and preparation.
• Personal preference. Many players find the HUD disrupting, and removing it brings them a better gaming experience. It is simply due to their personal preference. 

If you need a guide on how to get rid of HUD in CS:GO, all you need is to follow these steps:

• Open Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. 

• Enable developer console. Open game settings and click on ‘game’ in the menu bar. You will find ‘enable developer console’, and select the option ‘yes’.

• Access the developer console by pressing the selected key in the controls. You can find the control in the Keyboard/ Mouse section in the menu bar, under UI keys. 

Once this is done and the console is open, you can choose from several commands to hide HUD:

• Hide everything on the screen at once. If you need to hide everything quickly you can copy this in the console: sv_cheats 1;cl_drawhud 0;net_graph 0;cl_showfps 0

Completely remove the HUD. To do this, type cl_drawhud 0 in the console. This will remove the crosshair, as well as all the other features. To turn it back on, the default setting is cl_drawhud 1.

Remove HUD while death notices will still occur. Type cl_draw_only_deathnotices 1 in the console to activate this feature. 

Remove all the HUD apart from the crosshair. You can choose to still have the crosshair in the middle of the screen if you type the command crosshair 1 in addition to one of the previous commands. You can remove the crosshair by typing crosshair 0.

The FPS counter is in the top left corner of the screen. To remove it, type cl_showfps 0. To turn it back on, type cl_showfps 1.

Remove the net graph stats. Type net_graph 0 in the console to remove net graph stats.

If you do not wish to hide the HUD completely, you can use these options to customize it:

• Choose the scaling of the HUD. You can type HUD_skaling and tag it with a number between 0.5 and 0.95. The default size is 0.85.
• Choose the color of the HUD. Type cl_hud_color and put a number from 1 to 10 after that. Each number represents a different color and 0 is the default. 

As you see, it is easy to hide HUD CS:GO, and it has various advantages for gaming enthusiasts. Playing without it brings a more immersive experience to the gameplay, a cinematic experience to the streaming and screenshots, and players can also use it for training and skill development. However, it is not recommended to play competitive matches without the HUD, for the obvious reason of giving opponents a competitive advantage