Counter-Strike: Global Offensivecontinues to be an eyewatering success forValve, as it celebrates its best month ever in case purchases. In March, it’s being reported that 39.5 million cases were bought by players, the most in CS:GO’s 11-year history. Estimates place Valve’s earnings at $100 million, all from cosmetics alone.
This points to a huge increase in activity following the rumours andeventual confirmation of the sequel, Counter-Strike 2. It also shows that Valve’s decision to give the playerbase an improved version of the game is likely to pay off, as there are plenty of fans happy to pour record breaking amounts of money into the original.
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These stats don’t come directly from Valve, rather they’re shared by the third-party siteCS:GO Case Tracker. They estimate that 39.5 million cases were unboxed in March over a 31-day period, an increase of around 17 million since last month.
Dexertothen estimated that this would have earned Valve at least $100 million, given the price of keys and cases.
CS:GO cases have exploded in popularity since rumours about CS:GO 2 spread online. Before that, Valve was shifting around 20 million a month. Now that we know that Counter-Strike 2 is definitely a thing that exists, that figure has almost doubled.
Of course, this is hardly surprising. We’ve known for some time that many CS:GO players who purchase skins and weapons have concerning spending habits, or even gambling issues. Back in the late 2010s, parents whose children had maxed out their credit cards attempted to sue Valve, saying that CS:GO boxes should be regulated under gambling legislation.The lawsuit was dismissed last year, however, with the plaintiffs unable to hold Valve accountable.
Even if you remove the gambling element, CS:GO skins will be resold by fans for thousands. Just recently,someone paid $160,000 for an AK-47 skin. With the chance to make that much money dangling over the player base’s head, it’s easy to see why so many will pour so much into case unboxing.
Despite other games ditching loot box mechanics after this controversy, it seems that Valve is unlikely to do the same. With figures like this, there’s certainly no financial incentive to scrap cases. It remains to be seen if we’ll see these eyewatering figures over in Counter-Strike 2, but it’s safe to assume that Valve won’t want to upset the marketplace too much. Everything will carry over from CS:GO to CS 2 at the very least, so you won’t have to buy everything again.
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