Happy 2023! Let all the bad things be left behind, and we wish you a new year to bring only positive emotions and successful case drops!
Meanwhile, this year will mark ten years since the release of the first CS:GO skin case, Weapon Case #1. It’s been a remarkable decade in terms of events and development, and you can tell a lot from how Valve’s attitude towards skins has changed. Today, CS.MONEY Blog rewinds the era of skins and highlights the best of each year.
2013: The Origin
Almost a year after the initial CS:GO release, Valve is adding the first skin case: Weapon Case #1. Later, they present Weapon Case #2, Operation Bravo case, two Esports Cases, and Winter Offensive Case. That makes it five a year! Such an abundance can only be justified by the fact that Valve wanted to diversify the game as much as possible. 2013 brought us some legendary skins: AK-47 Case Hardened and its close relative, AK-47 Fire Serpent.
In addition, the developers have also released themed Collections dedicated to all competitive maps, starting from the original Dust and Office to the currently played Mirage. It’s worth paying attention to the fact that almost all the skins in Collections were of the same style and, to be honest, rather dull and gloomy, with sporadic exceptions. The most significant ones were the Glock-18 Fade, AWP Pit Viper and Desert Eagle Blaze.
2014: The Legend
Weapon Case #3, Operation Phoenix Case, Huntsman Case, Operation Breakout Case, Summer Esports Case and Operation Vanguard Case. What a list for a single year! However, among all its representatives, we have to choose only a couple, both from Phoenix Case: AK-47 Redline and AWP Asiimov. The latter burst into the world of skins with a roar and left a significant mark, becoming one of the first truly bright and eye-catching skins.
Also, Valve released five collections in 2014. Same style: mostly boring and usual skins, however…
You know what happened: Cobblestone Collection, the most important case in the history of CS:GO. It gave us the king of skins in AWP Dragon Lore, unrivalled to this day, and the M4A1-S Knight. In addition, among other collections, we had the M4A1-S Master Piece, AK–47 Jet Set and many others that are still in demand.
2015: The Gamechanger
Something changed in 2015. First, Valve released only three collections and five cases. Compared to previous years, it’s a little. Second, skins quality dropped: through the whole year, too many standard skins have sunk into the players’ inventories as unnecessary, pricing three cents.
The Chroma Case 1/2, Shadow Case, Falchion Case, and Revolver Case were mainly unremarkable. In these five cases, we got only M4A1-S and AWP Hyper Beast and the USP-S Kill Confirmed. Although, Collections presented AUG Akihabara Accept, AWP Medusa and M4A4 Poseidon.
It is important to note that this year Valve, after seeing the community’s excitement about bright and outstanding skins, decided to introduce more extraordinary and catchy ones into the game. And even though this year was not particularly prolific for legendary weapon finishes, it clearly changed the vector of CS:GO development.
2016: The Gloves
2016’s main innovation was gloves: an absolutely new type of skins. People greeted this idea with hype and ovation, although gloves’ rarity was incredibly high. Valve released Wildfire Case, Chroma 3 Case, Gamma 1/2, and a separate Glove Case that year.
There were no Collections whatsoever, and it’s quite difficult to single out any exciting options for 2016. Among the immortalised skins were only AK-47 Neon Revolution and M4A1-S Chantico’s Fire.
2017 + 2018: The Big Sad
The weakest years in terms of content. In 2017, we got only three cases: two Spectres and Hydra, and not a single Collection. Only USP-S Neo Noir and AK-47 The Empress stand out of all weapon finishes. It felt like the developers were simply tired, well, or had just changed the policy.
2018 followed in the previous year’s footsteps. Valve released only three cases: Clutch Case, Horizon Case, and Danger Zone Case (dedicated to the new game mode). Significant weapon finishes include AK-47 Asiimov and SG 553 Integrale. But the Collections were back, bringing tons of bright and shiny, yet not that many exciting skins.
In total, six cases and three collections were released in two years, and this period can be called the most unpleasant in the history of CS:GO skins.
2019: The Gamechanger, pt II
Three Collections and three cases (Prisma, CS20 and Shattered Web), but this year it immediately became clear what Valve were doing and what plan they had for skins. Operation Shattered Web was the key moment of the year. Why? We advise you to read our separate article, which describes the importance of this operation and how it changed CS:GO forever.
Promo code for XMAS DROP: XMAS-WB290JRC.
Deagle Emerald Jörmungandr and AK-47 Wild Lotus were the best skins of 2019.
2020: The New Era
Updated in 2019, Valve’s policy was three cases each year and nothing more. Therefore, we have Prisma Case 2, Fractured Case and Broken Fang Case. However, the quality of the skins has increased markedly, but this also dabbled their status. Also, Valve updated CS:GO’s engine to let skinmakers add pearlescent on skins, which was a huge breakthrough.
2020 gave us the first two Printstreams, Deagle and M4A1-S, as well as the expensive AK-47 X-Ray and the artistic M4A1-S Welcome To The Jungle.
2021: The Lazy
Obviously, considering the impact of the coronavirus, work around the world has slowed down significantly. However, it is unclear why this affected the set bar of three cases per year since Valve weren’t making skins themselves but selected them from the Workshop.
Snakebite Case and Riptide Case came out, presenting M4A4 In Living Color, M4A1-S Imminent Danger and AK-47 Gold Arabesque.
2022: Something New
In January 2022, Valve scared the hell out of the community by releasing the Dreams & Nightmares case, which was a turning point in several respects. First, it was a themed case, which had never happened before, and a special competition was announced to get into it. Second, the developers paid a fixed one hundred thousand dollars for each skin, which angered many skinmakers, because they paid in % of each case sold and even split between 17 people was a lot more. It’s hard to say if it was just an easy solution for Valve, or were probing the soil, or something else. And a little later, Recoil Case came out, although there were no Collections.
2023: Operation, Source 2 and Anubis Collection?
Guessing what Valve will decide to do this year is worthless. Insiders bombard us again with the news about CS:GO moving to a new engine, and there have been no Operations for a very long time. As well as any Collections.
In addition, our New Year’s XMAS DROP event is now in full swing, where you can win one of a hundred of different skins. Just log in to participate!
