As per the report CS2 Case Tracker, Valve made $980 million by just selling keys to virtual cases in Counter-Striker 2 in 2023 alone. The data claims that in the previous year, CS2 players opened 400 million cases, with the sale of 359.6 million keys.
Among the cases, the Dreams and Nightmares Case was the most popular which alone contributed $126.3 million in key sales.
These cases have an effortless way for players to enhance their visual appearance of characters by obtaining skins and cosmetics. In addition, the rewards from these cases are retained for further selling.
For instance, a pristine M4A4 Howling Dawn skin in CS:GO was sold for $180,000. Furthermore, a player sold an AK-47 Fire Serpent Factory Skin for $40,000, and it turns out that his investment was just $20.
Even though Insider-Gaming has stated it as “effectively money for nothing“, players speculate on profiting from skins and continue to purchase keys. The given staggering figures depict the impact graphics have on the gaming industry.
The report mentions that the prices of cases in Counter-Strike 2 have increased by 178%, meanwhile, the Danger Zone Cases have seen a 492% price hike.
CS2 Case Tracker went into deep analysis and came up with detailed information for us. More like Wednesday was the favorite day for players to open the crate.
Given that the Anubis Collection Package was released on 25th April 2023, the day witnessed 6.6 million openings. You can have a look at the infographic here.