How to turn a CS2 demo into an MP4

01The manual way: play it back and record it

You need three things: the .dem file, CS2 to play it, and a screen recorder running while it plays. First enable the console in Settings → Game → Enable Developer Console, then open it with ~.

1. 01Download the demo. In CS2 open Watch → Your Matches and hit the download button on the match. Only your last 8 matches are listed there. More options in how to download old demos.
2. 02Load it. Watch it straight from Your Matches, or use playdemo in the console. Matchmaking demos land in the replays folder, so the name starts with replays/ (no .dem needed).
3. 03Open the demo UI with demoui (or Shift+F2) and use the round selector to jump to the round with your play.
4. 04Spectate yourself with spec_player and your name, or click to cycle through players.
5. 05Clean up the screen with cl_draw_only_deathnotices 1. It hides the HUD except the crosshair and kill feed.
6. 06Start your screen recorder, let the round play, stop it, then cut the recording down in a video editor and export it as MP4.

playdemo replays/match730_...
demoui
spec_player yourname
cl_draw_only_deathnotices 1
demo_timescale 4
demo_timescale 1

demo_timescale changes playback speed without sv_cheats: scrub at 4, then go back to 1 before you record so the clip plays at normal speed. Skip cl_drawhud 0 and host_timescale, they're cheat-protected. The full list is in the demo commands cheat sheet.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\game\csgo\replays

Honest take: it works, but it's a lot of steps for one frag. You need a recorder set up, a PC that stays smooth while it records, and an editor to trim the result. Want a 9:16 version for TikTok too? A centre crop of a 16:9 recording cuts off whatever HUD sits near the edges, so that's another round of editing.

02The killcam.gg way: clips straight from the demo

killcam.gg reads your match demo from Valve, finds your plays and clips them on our servers. No recording software, no OBS, no game running on your PC.

1. 01Sign in through Steam.
2. 02Link your match history once: paste your game authentication code and a share code. Here's where to find both.
3. 03Play as usual. New matches are found automatically within minutes of finishing, and each clip takes a few minutes to make.
4. 04Open the clip and hit Download 16:9 or Download 9:16 to save the MP4, or copy the share link.

Every clip comes in both 16:9 and 9:16 from one job. It starts 4 s before your first kill of the play and ends 2 s after the last, with dead stretches of 5 s or more cut down. Free clips your top play from every match at 1080p 30fps or 720p 60fps with a small killcam.gg logo at the bottom centre. Pro clips your top 3 plays every match, lets you clip any other kill you pick, and goes up to 4K 120fps with no watermark.

03How to record an old match

An old match can still be clipped as long as Valve still has its demo. Valve doesn't publish how long that is. It's typically a few weeks at most, so download soon.

• In game: Watch → Your Matches covers your last 8 matches. For a specific match, paste its share code after csgo_download_match in the console. It downloads the match and starts playback, then you record it as above.
• On killcam.gg: use Add a match by share code for one match. To catch up on your last 8 games, paste the share code of the oldest match in Your Matches as your starting share code and every match after it gets pulled.

csgo_download_match CSGO-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Once Valve drops the demo, it can't be recovered and killcam.gg shows "Valve no longer has this demo". A demo you already downloaded doesn't expire, but after big CS2 updates older demos can stop playing. More in why a demo expires.