Video game developer, Valve, is believed to have made over $1 billion in sales in 2023 purely from Counter-Strike 2 case openings, as reported by Dexerto.
In the popular game, Counter-Strike 2 – which boasts over 23 million monthly players – gamers can earn cases for random items just by playing the game, but the catch is a key must be purchased to unlock them. Cases can also be purchased from Steam’s community marketplace.
Data released by CS2 Case Tracker – which tracks case openings by gamers within the game in real-time – over 400 million cases were unboxed in 2023, with almost 360 million keys consumed. Cases unboxings peaked in April following the release of the Anubis Collection Package, which doesn’t require a key to unbox, as 6.6 million cases were opened by players in a single day (April 25) and 50.3 million over the entire month.
CS2 Case Tracker estimates that Valve made $980 million on keys to open cases alone in 2023. This figure doesn’t take into account the 15% cut Valve makes on all cases sold on Steam’s community marketplace, which means the total revenue for cases and keys combined is likely to be over $1 billion for the year.
Loot boxes such as those available in Counter-Strike 2 are controversial and last year the UK games industry agreed to restrict access to in-game loot boxes for Children, thanks to new industry guidelines from Ukie and the government.
How much are Counter-Strike 2 cases and keys?
As players are required to purchase keys to open cases, the price for keys is fixed at $2.49. Cases require specific keys to open them and can be purchased directly from the in-game store.
Cases are available to purchase from the Steam Market or from third-party websites, where they are typically found to be far cheaper than Steam. Some cases can cost in the thousands, while the cheapest can be found for under a dollar.
For example, on Skinport, a third-party Counter-Strike 2 marketplace, the most expensive case is selling for almost $45,000, while the cheapest comes in at just $0.10.
Featured Image: Counter-Strike 2, Valve
