The most coveted items in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most popular games going right now, with it also being one of the pillars that are constantly lifting eSports to new and exciting heights. The player base is simply massive, with an average of 374,426 people playing per hour as recently as August 2017.

Within the game, and around the web, players can perform micro-transactions to randomly be rewarded with skins for their weapons, with CS:GO developer Valve announcing in 2016 that 90 of their community created weapon finishes earned $40,000 on average.

So, first of all, why is so much being spent on items that don’t have an impact on in-game performance, and what items are the most coveted in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive world?

Why spend on skins?

Skins give people the chance to be unique, and with many of the items being rather rare – often the best-looking ones – players also get a certain amount of respect from other players for having an envious item. It’s always exciting to hear people talking about your skill in the game, and the quickest way for them to see that you’re there is with a great-looking weapon – one that incites fear into players who have faced you before.

ESports give gamers the opportunity to become competitive professionals while playing the games that they enjoy from the comfort of their own homes. However, doing so takes a lot of time and dedication. Established professionals Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg and Asger ‘AcilioN’ Larsen spend nine hours per day practising, so it’ll take a lot longer to move into professional consideration. In doing so, you’ll spend so much time on this very cheap game to buy that you may want to invest more in it either for the sake of the development team or your own cosmetic view of the game – brighten up your experience a bit.

Others; many others, in fact, see the CS:GO cases as a way to make some money. With items selling in the hundreds and thousands – even tens of thousands – many see the comparably cheap cases from as little as $0.29 being worth the gamble. Sites like Case51 boast a wide range of options for players, showing all of the exciting skins available in each case as well as their respective values, so there is money to be made by the lucky players.

Most valuable items in CS:GO

Naturally, the value of an item from cases that produce random payouts will be very rarity-dependent, which is why the items that are rarely seen in circulation sell for the most. Some of the rarest knives have sold for a grand or two, but one went for an astronomical figure, purchased by one evidently avid fan of CS:GO.

The Bayonet Night (Factory New) which is a slick, black skin on the M-9 bayonet, sold for $1000. StatTrak™ Karambit Fade (Factory New) gives the player the Karambit in with a coloured chrome colouring on the blade, fetching $1200. StatTrak™ also forged the M9 Bayonet Crimson Web (Minimal Wear), a red and web take on the blade, which costs $1800. The Karambit’s Crimson Web (Minimal Wear) also brings in a pretty penny ($2000) with the Crimson Web look being a hugely popular but rare design.

Now for the astronomical figure. The StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet Crimson Web (Factory New) was purchased for $23,850 by a collector in April 2014; more need not be said on this matter.

For varying reasons, CS:GO players love testing their luck on the cases to see if they can either get an impressive new look to their weapon or make a bit of money through resale. While the skins don’t have any real impact on the gameplay, they clearly have an impact on the players.