Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) skin traders woke up to a disastrous day as the game’s skin market cap plummeted from $6 billion to $4.1 billion. Following a game update, the total value of the CS2 skins available to purchase fell by around 30% in the space of a few hours, setting its growth back by eight months.
The developments come as Valve released a major update for CS2, with the potential of reshaping the game’s skin economy. It adds a new system that allows players to trade in five Covert (red) quality weapon skins for a knife or glove. While still quite costly, this path represents a cheaper way to obtain said items, which were previously only available through random case openings.
In effect, this allows everyone to get a knife or glove skin without having to shell out the exorbitant prices asked for in marketplace. @csfloatcom on X did some calculations and estimated that if all 29 million Covert skins were traded for knives and gloves, it would double the global supply of these items. Understandably, the 29 million skins are unlikely to all be converted into knives and gloves, but even if 5% were transformed, they would send a shockwave through the market. As a result, some traders rushed to get rid of their high-value skins before it’s too late, starting a chain reaction.
If you are wondering how video game skins can be worth multiple billions of dollars, the answer is speculation. Most of these high-value items will never actually be used in the game. As the item continues exchanging hands, its price increases as everyone tries to recoup their investment. Considering how some skins are valued at $2,000, $5,000, or more, this absurd market cap isn’t surprising in the slightest. Heck, the most valued item currently demands nearly half a million dollars! I can’t even comprehend trying to buy such an item, especially as PayPal limits each transaction to $60,000 max.
There’s obviously a market for such skins – and a huge one at that – but mere mortals would be better served putting money toward a system that can run the game at 1,300fps, or at least a physical skin like the SteelSeries CS2 collection.
For years now, players have been complaining about the state of the CS skins market as prices continued to rise to absurd levels. Some of the rare items went so high they became too expensive for the average player to own. Even those dropping them by chance tended to sell them for their value, covering their Steam purchases for years to come.
Considering previous measures such as the seven-day trading lock placed on recently traded items and the new Terminals system, Valve is unlikely to stop here. If not for the average player’s health and peace of mind, the lost revenue caused by selling skins outside of Steam’s marketplace could be a catalyst for further change.
