The fact that Counter-Strike 2 is going to support all the cosmetics and customization options available to CS:GO players has sent many fans into a case-opening frenzy, with almost 40 million skin cases opened in a month. As a comprehensive set of upgrades to its predecessor, CS2 aims to retain virtually everything that players have earned over the past couple of years, which also means many are using this opportunity to stock up on goodies ahead of its release.

After Valve announced that Counter-Strike 2 is real and due to launch in the summer of 2023 as a CS:GO replacement, many fans were uncertain what exactly this meant for their favorite game. Instead of scrapping everything that made GO work and starting anew, however, Valve is taking the opposite approach, essentially setting up CS2 as a 2.0 version of the classic competitive shooter.

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With an all-new Counter-Strike game on the way that fully supports any and all skins that were released over the years, the CS:GO community jumped on the opportunity to open as many skin cases as humanly possible throughout March. The CS:GO Case Tracker website reports that players collectively opened roughly 39.5 million skin cases in March 2023, marking a new record in this particular category. It's difficult to say how much money must have gone into opening all these cases, but estimates put it at over $100 million in total.

CS-GO-Cases-Opened-March-2023

CS:GO has been breaking record after record following the announcement of Counter-Strike 2. Valve's announcement of the game was, in fact, rather tame compared to the majority of other contemporary game announcements. With just a few short videos, the company behind Steam made it clear what its intention for the future of Counter-Strike was, and it seems that the community is highly receptive to it.

While some players are sure to be opening their CS:GO cases to use the unlocked skins, others may be planning to sell them instead. CS:GO skin prices skyrocketed after Counter-Strike 2 was announced. Those who had been sitting on particularly rare skins or cases suddenly had the opportunity to flip them at a high price, and this is bound to have been a factor for the newly broken record.

Depending on how successful the game ends up being, Counter-Strike 2 may kickstart Valve sequels at long last. Fans of franchises such as Half-Life, Portal, and Team Fortress have gone for years without any major new developments, and it's possible that CS2 may begin a new phase for the company behind Steam. Whether that ends up being the case in the end, however, is anyone's guess.

Counter-Strike 2 launches Summer 2023 on PC.

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Source: CS:GO Case Tracker