Valve has updated its near 17-year-old competitive first-person shooter Team Fortress 2 to finally add 64-bit support.

The update, which some fans are calling the most significant from Valve itself in years, should result in a performance improvement for most users. Reports indicate Team Fortress 2’s frames-per-second count is increased by around 20%, resulting in a much smoother experience.

While this Team Fortress 2 update is certainly welcome, it has done little to calm the constant stream of requests from the player base for Valve to tackle the game’s most troublesome issue: bots. Team Fortress 2 has had a bot problem for years, and despite a community-wide drive to raise awareness for the issue, there is little sign of improvement.

The major changes include:

• Added 64-bit support for Windows/Linux client and server
  • Should include performance improvements for most users
  • Bugs can be reported here: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Source-1-Games/issues
• Fixed an exploit related to uploading invalid custom decals that would crash other clients

Team Fortress 2 launched in 2007 on PC and console, and it has endured as one of Steam’s most popular games ever since. At the time of this article’s publication, Team Fortress 2 was the 16th most-played game on Valve’s platform, with 50,092 concurrent players. That’s more than the likes of Monster Hunter: World, Call of Duty, and Football Manager.

Despite Team Fortress 2’s ongoing popularity, players have often accused Valve of neglecting the game in favor of other projects, such as Dota 2. In January, Team Fortress: Source 2 and Portal 64 fan projects were shut down by Valve takedowns. In development since at least 2021, Team Fortress: Source 2 was envisioned as a new version of the classic game on Garry’s Mod spiritual successor s&box. With Team Fortress 2 now 17 years old and largely overrun by bots, Team Fortress: Source 2 was intended to inject fresh life into Valve’s beloved shooter. The team at one point had more than 20 volunteers helping to port assets from the base game and rebuild Team Fortress 2 mechanics.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].