Five great budget CSGO rifle skins to add to your collection

The right budget rifle skin in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive can get you some mad drip without a guilt trip.

Skins are an essential part of the CSGO experience. Spotting expensive cosmetics like a Dragon Lore or Gold Arabesque in the wild is always cool, but even certain budget skins have a certain appreciable quality. And the rifle slot is probably the most important skin in your collection. It’s what you’ll see on the majority of your buy rounds. Besides, no one wants to drop a vanilla skin to their teammate. Luckily for CSGO fans, there are plenty of awesome options available for under $10. These are five great budget rifle skins that would make an excellent addition to any budget CSGO skin collection.

AK-47 | Green Laminate (Minimal Wear)

The new Green Laminate from Operation Riptide is an excellent choice for a T on a budget. The differences between float values are pretty small, so going for minimal wear helps save some cash. There are a bunch of Laminate skins available for the AK-47, but the green one is the newest and is still relatively uncommon in public matchmaking.

The Laminate skins are also a great platform for stickers. Use some of the money you saved to slap on some Riptide stickers or player autographs and enjoy your shiny new gat. Just be sure to grab it soon, as prices will probably rise when Riptide ends.

M4A4 | Tooth Fairy (Factory New)

Most players rock the M4A1-S nowadays, which means that M4A4 diehards can enjoy awesome skins at a cheaper price. The Tooth Fairy from the Fracture Collection has dropped considerably in value, putting it just within the reach of many players’ budgets. 

The art on the Tooth Fairy is beautiful. The skeletal fairy looks like something out of the Dream & Nightmares competition, but it’s already available to buy and play with. Even players who have switched to the M4A1-S should consider picking this up now while the factory new model is just under $10.

StatTrak™ M4A1-S | Flashback (Battle-scarred)

Moving on to the more popular CT rifle, the M4A1-S | Flashback has everything you want in a budget CSGO skin. The skin takes full advantage of the gun’s iconic silhouette to create an awesome Vietnam War-inspired look. The scramble graffiti is entertaining to look at even after hundreds of rounds played.

The Glove Collection is a very top-heavy case, with the golds selling for hundreds of dollars and everything else remaining cheap. That makes it an excellent source of budget CSGO skins. The battle-scarred version is particularly cheap, so you can spring for a StatTrak™ counter to really complete the gritty Cold War look.

AK-47 | Orbit Mk01 (Field-tested)

The fourth budget CSGO rifle skin on our list comes from the Operation Hydra case. Just like the Flashback, this case’s skin prices are heavily tilted towards the upper end. Everyone wants the gloves, which means that the lower-rarity gun skins stay cheap for the most part. The Orbit Mk01 is a perfect example, which is great news for frugal CSGO players.

The black and red color scheme looks great across a variety of light levels, and the field-tested version still looks great. It currently sells for just over nine dollars, which makes it a great cheap option for the T side. 

M4A1-S | Fizzy POP (Factory New)

The M4A1-S has a ton of great skins, but many of them have shot up in price due to the Riptide buffs. The Fizzy POP is a notable exception. In fact, it’s somehow the cheapest M4A1-S skin in the game. The Train 2021 skin pairs a cool color palette with a Soviet-era graffiti theme. In any older CSGO case, it could easily be a pink or red.

Considering that the Fizzy POP was added at exactly the same time, it’s still very cheap. A dozen of them still won’t break the $10 budget. The factory new version is available from the Steam Market for barely more than a dollar, making it the absolute cheapest budget CSGO rifle skin on our list.