No company has been so well-versed in creating infinite money glitches as Valve. But perhaps one of their biggest revenue generators is Counter-Strike cases, and the company has reportedly earned nearly a billion dollars in 2023—a far cry from their estimated earnings in 2022.
CS2 Case Tracker, a site that monitors case openings and revenue, published its 2023 year-in-review yesterday, presenting some raw numbers for players to lose their minds over. The most striking number was Valve’s estimated revenue generated by CS2 cases last year, with the FPS netting the company $980 million USD dollars from key sales alone. These numbers do not include case purchases made through the Steam Community Market where Valve takes a hefty cut, nor do they account for cases sold through the CS2 store, such as the Anubis Collection case.
Over 400 million cases were cracked open by players in 2023, with 360 million keys used. A quarter of the total cases opened were unboxed in April 2023 when Valve’s latest shooter entered the Limited Test, which in turn drove skin prices to historical maximums. According to the report, case prices nearly tripled on average, with the Dreams & Nightmares Case increasing in value by a whole $25.
Compared to Anomaly’s estimates of Valve’s case earnings in 2022, in which he deduced Valve makes around $2 million a day from cases, this marks a nearly 50 percent increase in revenue from cases alone. When one considers additional revenue from the Steam Market itself, as well as from sticker capsules which CS2 Case Tracker does not account for, Valve’s profit from CS2 is truly mind-boggling.
Some players reacted harshly to the news, with some arguing that Valve doesn’t have a reason to care for the state of CS2 when they’re making such money from doing nothing. CS2 has been marred with technical issues, some of which seeped into official Major qualifiers with numerous player-requested features still missing from the game.
At any rate, Valve raked in the cash in 2023, and though rocky, CS2‘s announcement and release drove skin and case sales to a record high, and the future looks bright for the company’s flagship title. Here’s hoping some of that cash goes towards improving the state of the game for all to enjoy.
