CS2 skins explained: Rarity, types & marketplace in 2025

With a current Market Cap of $4.6bn, Counter-Strike’s skin economy has taken on a life of its own to become one of the defining aspects of the game, with skin-based content creators like OhnePixel or Sparkles becoming some of the most-viewed content in the CS2 world.

Over 30M cases are opened weekly, as players look to unbox their favourite skins. But why are CS2 skins worth so much, and what determines their value? 

CS2 skins are cosmetics that change how your guns, knives, and gloves look. There are also Agent skins that change your character model. 

Counter-Strike skins are purely cosmetic, in that they are not designed to change any gameplay aspect of CS, although some players might feel their best using their favourite guns or knives. Despite not having an appreciable effect in-game, CS2 skins are highly sought-after items owing to their rarity and monetary value.

Several variables make up every skin. Each variable directly impacts the value of the rare CS2 skins you will unbox or buy. In a broad sense, the value of a weapon is primarily determined by its rarity coupled with its desirability.

Rarity, called Quality on Steam’s Marketplace, refers to how likely a skin is to be dropped as part of weekly drops, or unboxed/opened in a package. The Tiers of Rarity, from highest to lowest, are as follows:

*Contraband cannot be unboxed or created in any other way. Only existing skins can be traded.

While knives and gloves are classified as Covert, they are roughly four times rarer than Covert guns opened from cases.

Opening collection skins from packages or the Armory Pass can grant you any skin from Consumer Grade to Covert, if there is a Covert as part of the collection, but Knives/Gloves are not part of collections. Cases do not include Consumer or Industrial Grade skins.

Condition, Wear, and Float all refer to the condition of the weapon’s finish. Starting with Factory New and ending with Battle-Scarred, all CS2 weapons with a skin exist on a spectrum of wear from 0 to 1. 

Factory New weapons will have the skin’s design largely intact, with higher ratings having more and more imperfections.

Generally speaking, weapons with less wear are more valuable on the market; however, extremely high float skins can be valuable if they are unusually high in that regard.

Some CS2 skins are ‘Pattern-based’, with each weapon having a Pattern Template ranging from 0-1000. For Pattern-based skins, this number determines which part of the texture’s base image is superimposed onto the gun.

Each theoretical pattern is rare, as there are 1,001 potential patterns, but some are more desirable due to the finish. For example, ‘Blue Gems’ are Case Hardened CS2 skins with an unusual amount of blue as part of the weapon. The best possible patterns for Blue Gems are among the most expensive skins in the game.

Doppler and Gamma Doppler knives have a similar system. Knives can be one of several variations, with the rarest type once again referred to as ‘Gems’ by the CS2 community. 

A Doppler knife can be a Sapphire 1 (1 in 100), Ruby (1 in 100), or Black Pearl (1 in 1000), and a Gamma Doppler can be an Emerald (1 in 100), with the remaining probabilities shared between Phases 1-4 of each knife.

Souvenir weapons are part of package drops linked to Counter-Strike majors. The skins generally feature stickers of two teams contesting a particular match at the tournament; historically, they also included a player’s signature. Souvenir weapons cannot be traded up, so they are often cheaper than their non-Souvenir counterparts.

That rule is reversed when the weapon is already the highest rarity or features stickers from a famous or historical event or match. For example, an AWP Dragon Lore will typically fetch more than $20,000 for the Souvenir version, which can include events dating back to ESL One Cologne 2014. It’s one of the most expensive CS2 skins seen. 

Certain stickers can also be highly sought-after commodities in the Counter-Strike world. The Katowice 2014 Titan (Holo) and iBUYPOWER (Holo) are each worth about $70,000 for a single sticker. As such, the value of guns with such stickers is vastly increased.

Stat-Trak is a binary variable on all guns and CS2 knives opened through cases (not collection skins). It refers to an in-game display on the gun or knife showing the kills you have made with the weapon.

When you open a weapon, there is a 10% chance that it is a Stat-Trak weapon. Typically, Stat-Trak guns are worth more, and Stat-Trak knives are worth less. Despite Stat-Trak knives being rarer, they are less desirable as the Stat-Trak displays numerical scratches on the skin.

While this isn’t an inbuilt aspect of the weapon, the availability of a weapon has a huge impact on its price. If a weapon is part of a common case or collection that is still available, it will typically be cheaper.

Once CS2 collections are phased out, their skins will no longer drop, meaning the number of that skin is finite, limited to how many have already been dropped or opened. For example, the AWP Gungnir only dropped as part of the Norse Collection, which was only available during Operation Shattered Web. 

Subsequently, there are only 3,407 in existence according to CSFloat’s skins database, although a few more may exist in private inventories. The only way to create more of the skin now is to Trade Up for it, using a finite amount of available and costly skins from the Norse Collection.

Counter-Strike skins can be directly unboxed, gotten through Armory pass stars, collected as part of your weekly drop, or traded for through Steam’s Marketplace or Third-Party websites.

Players can unbox skins from cases or packages, which have the following odds:

Cases:

Souvenir/Collection packages:

Weapons can also be redeemed by using stars from the Armory Pass, with the following odds for collection skins:

CS2 skins can also be bought and sold on the Steam Marketplace. To buy skins, you will have to have the required Steam balance. Steam takes a portion of the funds as a transaction fee and a game-specific fee when selling skins, equating to 15% of the total value. This means that if you sell a skin for £100, you will receive $85 of Steam credit.

Skins can also be traded on Third-Party websites. When money can be withdrawn, this process is called ‘Cash Trading’. Players should be cautious and check recent community sentiment on specific websites before trading or logging into a trading site.

If we add up all of those variables, we can easily understand what makes the rarest CS2 skins so elusive. These skins are unlikely to exist, and their value is compounded by even rarer modifiers such as rare patterns. 

However, it is not the case that the rarest skins are the most expensive, as the skin itself has to be desirable and rare. Put those two factors together, and you will find Counter-Strike 2’s most expensive skins:

*This list does not include additional value given by applied stickers, as there are thousands of combinations, and the most expensive crafts are rarely on sale.

**According to CSFloat’s Skins Database.

So there you have it. Now you understand what makes a skin valuable and why the most expensive CS skins are desired. Remember, as you chase that dream inventory, to remember the odds of success in opening rare items.

If a Factory New Karambit 387 were opened daily, it wouldn’t be worth $1,500,000.