Counter-Strike players spent $1 billion on cases in 2023

Olivia Richman Published 22/01/2024

The amount of money Valve made in Counter-Strike case sales in 2023 will possibly blow your mind — or maybe you expect it from the CS2 community.

Skins are a big component of the Counter-Strike community. When gamers are not grinding competitive matches or complaining about Counter-Strike 2, they are trading and buying weapon skins.

It’s now been reported that Valve netted around $1 billion in sales on Counter-Strike cases in 2023.

Counter-Strike case sales revealed

CS2 Case Tracker is the one on the case, literally. They’ve been documenting real-time data regarding open CS cases and found that gamers spent $980 million on keys for cases last year. This doesn’t include the cost of cases themselves — which is a 15% cut — so it’s at least $1 billion.

According to CS2 Case Tracker, more than 400 million cases were opened in 2023. This is despite the price of a case increasing by 178% over 2022.

One thing that led to more purchases was the announcement of Counter-Strike 2. When it was announced on March 22, case unboxings went up. April had over 50 million unboxings alone. That same month, the Anubis Collection Package was revealed, which only furthered the hype.

Case openings skyrocketed once more in September when CS2 was announced. Will CS2 continue to create large case sales in 2024? Only time will tell.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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