Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skins are constantly growing in price. For example, AK-47 Bloodsport Factory New doubled in price in five years, from about $50 to just over $100. That’s a noticeable increase. But why it happened? CS.MONEY Blog explains the reason behind skins’ cost increases and regular price changes.
In this article, we’ve once again hidden the promo code (in two parts) for GameChanger Hub. Find it, collect it, and you’ll definitely have something to show off from your inventory!
Players Numbers
Valve has created a free skins market. So, the prices there are governed by supply and demand laws. Demand is determined by the number of players and the popularity of skins, while Supply is about the number of skins in the game and their selling options. And the number of CS:GO players is the first reason the price rises.
Besides the Chinese servers launch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player base has grown remarkably since 2013, when the skins were introduced. Back in that days, the peak daily online was about 50000 players, while today, it hits more than 1 million. Obviously, many old skins and related cases simply didn’t drop in vast quantities. First part of the promo code: WH8.
For example, the Operation Bravo case. And it still, albeit exceptionally seldom, drops after matches. Despite this, there are less than 700 such cases available on the Steam Market! It’s clear that such rare cases will be expensive, and its price is over $50 apiece. Thus, we can acknowledge why the skins in this case are costly.
Popularity Factor
There’s a reason we chose Bravo. It clearly shows how popularity affects the skin’s price. So, there are two Covert skins and three Classified skins in the case: AK-47 Fire Serpent and Desert Eagle Golden Koi, as well as P90 Emerald Dragon, AWP Graphite and P2000 Ocean Foam, respectively.
Can you guess the cheapest skin from this five? Players who are not really familiar with trading or with this case specifically will most likely name the P2000 or P90 skins, which is wrong. The cheapest skin from the list above is Desert Eagle Golden Koi, available for less than fifty dollars. All the rest are no cheaper than a franklin.
You see, AK-47 Fire Serpent is an iconic skin. And P90 Emerald Dragon, AWP Graphite and P2000 Ocean Foam are used in contracts to craft new AK-47 Fire Serpent. Even if you spend a dozen P2000 Ocean Foam for an exchange, there is still a 50% chance to get Desert Eagle Golden Koi, which is not popular. Being a by-product, it is much lower in value than the AK.
New Skins
Things are clear with price rises for old skins: fewer items, many players, and, thus, high prices. But what about new skins? Why is AWP Gungnir nearly as expensive as AWP Dragon Lore? This skin was released when CS:GO’s daily online boasted hundreds of thousands in peak! Why’s that?
To solve this case, answer the question: where do skins come from? Initially, all CS:GO skins originated from post-match drops when the game pleased you with either a weapon finish or a case. So, players were sweating in the pubs to get drops, open cases and sell skins to others. It was the circle of life. The second part of the promo code: CKR.
But as always, it’s more complicated. Most cases drop very rarely, and only a few are regulars, available in large numbers. Take, for example, the Fracture case. It frequently drops, with 250000 cases available on the Steam Market right now. That’s in no way a lack. But let’s look at the price charts for the two rarest guns from the case, Desert Eagle Printstream and AK-47 Legion of Anubis. Both skins are dropping down in price. In a year, AK-47 Legion of Anubis Factory New fell in price by about five bucks! Such price reduction means that Demand more than satisfies Supply, and in order to get rid of this skin, owners have to reduce prices.
But it’s pretty different with AWP Gungnir since it’s not available in any case. It belongs to The Norse collection. That, in turn, was obtainable only by the Shattered Web Operation Pass owners. That is the reason why AWP Gungnir in CS:GO is so rare. According to FloatDB, there are fewer than 3300 skins in the game. It’s a decent skin for a popular gun, extremely limited in quantity, and at the same time, drops from a deluxe case. Simple maths, and that’s why the price tag for the AWP Gungnir is so sky-high. More specifically, once it was around $2000 on Steam Marketplace. However, soon the skin disappeared, and you can’t buy it today. But you can find one on CS.MONEY.
Let’s sum it up. The main reason for the constant skin price increases is the balance of Supply and Demand. The skins with Supply overlapping Demand are cheaper, while all others hold their price or become more expensive. Valve implemented the new format for Operations, which also wedged into the Supply-Demand balance. Due to time-limited collections, these skins immediately become rare and quickly grow in price. By the way, you can track price changes on our wiki in the Investments section. Be sure to check it out!
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