Counter-Strike skins market soars to new peak of $5.78 Billion

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 08/10/2025

The Counter-Strike skins economy has reached a new peak, with the cumulative market cap reaching $5,779,517,052 (£4,304,670,993), according to the skins market database PriceEmpire.

The market cap has risen sharply in September, with prices of some of Counter-Strike’s most expensive skins outpacing the overall growth.

Counter-Strike 2 skins, due to their ability to be sold for real money on third-party websites, have become a space for investors as well as skins enthusiasts because of their real-world value.

Collapse and rapid growth in Counter-Strike’s volatile trading space

The growth comes shortly after falls due to Valve implementing a “Trade Reversal” feature for Steam item trades in July.

Trade reversal allows people to reverse trades for seven days after the initial trade.

The change plummeted the skins economy from $5.1bn to $4.6 bn, a fall of 9.8%, as the market dealt with anxiety and market interruptions due to the change.

Real money markets soon stabilised after platforms introduced sweeping changes to hold money during the trade reversal period, and forbade trade reversals, which now result in bans for users.

Since the sudden fall, skin prices have soared, in August and September, rising 12.95% over the last 90 days, according to the platform.

While the market is highly volatile and extremely reactive to change, the overall picture is one of considerable growth.

That growth is not linear amongst skins, with rare and valuable skin growth outpacing that of the general economy.

Knives and rare guns are chief amongst them, with some individual items such as the AWP Dragon Lore fetching hundreds of thousands of pounds alone.

An example of the recent explosion of some items comes in the case of the AK-47 Hydroponic (Factory New), which has gained approximately 50% additional value in the last 30 days.

Resultantly, the skin is now worth approximately $9,300 (£6,930).

China a driver of the skins market growth

PriceEmpire derives its pricing data from Buff, a Chinese trading platform and the largest trading platform in the world.

China’s relationship with skins is a key factor in the growth of its market, as Chinese investors have proven to be driving forces in the economy’s dynamics.

As the type of investments Chinese citizens can make is highly controlled by the state, Chinese Counter-Strike players have turned to skins as a permissible form of investment.

The conditions result in many wealthy individuals putting vast amounts of money into Counter-Strike skins, raising prices.

In certain cases, this investment has resulted in notable alleged ‘pump and dump’ schemes, whereby leaders of investment groups, colloquially called ‘teachers’, encourage their followers to purchase certain items.

After the price of the item rises, the instigators of the rise sell off their stocks, resulting in the price collapsing.

One alleged recent case saw a sticker, the EG Stockholm 2021 Major Holo, which was previously approximately £1 to purchase for most of 2025, rise to a peak of £349.40 on September 12.

One week later, the sticker was approximately £19, losing 95% of its value.

While skins have reached a new apex in value, the fraught and volatile nature of the skins economy remains.

The real money value of skins comes with advantages, as you can sell your items if you do not want them any more, but it also comes with risks and potential bad actors seeking to make a quick buck.

The EG Holo situation exemplifies the risks inherent in Counter-Strike’s largely unregulated economy, so treat the space with caution.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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