According to Faceit, Anubis was a top 4 most played map in 2025. Being a top 4 most played map despite not being available for half of the year already tells you a lot how its growing in the community, especially considering it is a relatively new map released in 2020. It was one of the most fun and genuinely unique layout maps in CS. It was removed during a period when the CT economy was extremely punishing, but that economy was later patched to be much more forgiving. This raises an interesting question: how would Anubis play today under the current CT economy? Realistically, it would likely feel much more balanced and possibly even better than before.
So if Anubis were to return, which map could it potentially replace? In my opinion, Inferno and Overpass are the strongest contenders. Overpass in CS2 is the least played map at almost every level now, which makes it seem like an easy option, even though it is one of the more recently added maps.
The other option is Inferno. In CS2, Inferno suffers heavily from choke point overload and utility spam due to how powerful utilities are now, with bigger smokes and an open skybox. Banana and mid are almost entirely defined by grenade exchanges, making early round interaction repetitive and stale. On top of that, Inferno’s pacing feels very slow. Rounds often stall into late executes with little variation, and retake scenarios are extremely difficult for CTs because of the layout, turning many rounds into save simulators.
So the question is: should Anubis be considered as a replacement for either Inferno or Overpass?
The only real downside to Anubis returning is aesthetics. The current map pool already leans heavily toward dusty and sandy environments because of Dust2 and Mirage. Even then, Anubis is by far the best looking dusty map and, more importantly, one that plays exceptionally well. It deserves a comeback.