A Counter-Strike: Global Offensive collector has paid around $160,000 for a unique skin of an AK-47 rifle. The CS:GO gamer used a Chinese digital marketplace to acquire the costly rifle skin, making it one of the largest sales in the history of the first-person shooter title, which is currently breaking records in player count.Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has seen many changes since its original launch in 2012. For instance, weapon skins are now one of the most successful monetization practices in CS:GO. Introduced in 2013, they now exist in a profitable marketplace in which players try to acquire the rarest ones to sell for a profit later as prices have inflated over time. The development of a massive esports scene also helped this market to grow, as the title keeps increasing in popularity and getting more potential buyers for skins.This week, a CS:GO player spent €149,000 (around $160,000) to acquire a “factory new” Wild Lotus skin with rare stickers. The item was sold on Buff, the largest CS:GO marketplace in China, and was bought by a Chinese collector. According to Dexterto, the sale was likely in the top 10 most expensive skins ever sold in Counter-Strike.
The Wild Lotus skin for the AK-47 rifle is fairly rare and was added to CS:GO back in 2019. On average, a brand-new Wild Lotus will be sold for around $10,000, but this one had some rare stickers, which added to its value. The stickers in question are four Reason Holo stickers from 2014, which could be sold for $40,000 by themselves. While these values may seem very high when looked at in isolation, there are several CS:GO players spending thousands of dollars to get skins, which adds to the final prices due to the high demand.
The skin market is so crazily profitable that last year the popular Twitch streamer Buster traded CS:GO skins for a car. At the time, he traded a few cosmetics, including several rare stickers, and a Saphire Karambit to get a black BMW M5. The reality of the CS:GO skin market and these high prices will not change anytime soon. As the game gets more popular, demand will certainly continue spiking, and the skin market will grow as players believe that they can keep making some neat profits by trading these rare items with each other.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is available for PC and legacy platforms.
Source: Dexerto