Someone Paid Over $150k For a CS:GO Gun Skin

gamerant.com:

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.

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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