The number of cases CS:GO players opened almost doubled in the past few months, and it seems all the hype around Counter-Strike 2 was the catalyst.
Players opened 39.5 million weapons cases in March 2023 alone, seeing a rise of 17.9 million since January this year.
According to CS:GO Case Tracker, gamers have opened 88.8 million cases in 2023, with each key roughly valued at $2.50 USD. This means Valve has earned an estimated $222,000,000 from cosmetic cases within the first three months of this year. March trumped each month of last year, beating 2022’s 26.2 million peak by a whopping 13.3 million cases.
While this seems like an astronomical amount of revenue, let’s not forget Valve also received a percentage of money from each sale made on their community marketplace. This can be a tiny percentage of an expensive knife skin, but, pairing this with the number of sales happening perpetually, Valve is likely to be making considerable profits from this venture—and Counter-Strike 2 isn’t even officially out yet.
This news also comes alongside an increasing player base that has continued breaking records. Odds are, we’ll be seeing higher numbers continuing throughout the year.
Players have dug their heels into the FPS by buying more weapon skins, despite concerns regarding plummeting cosmetic prices as CS2 takes over CS:GO.
Fortunately, Valve moved to quell any concerns by allowing players to transfer skins from CS:GO to the CS2 beta.
With such a large revenue stream, maybe Valve could use this revenue stream to assist Counter-Strike esports as some of the top teams collapse in on themselves.
