Valve announced Counter-Strike 2 on March 22, 2023, and with it confirmed that every CS:GO item would carry over. Within days, the gaming press was reporting record player numbers, a surge in case opening and sharp price rises on skins, cases and stickers. This article collects what was reported at the time, with the outlet and date for each figure.
None of these numbers are current prices, and none of them say anything about where prices will go. They are a record of one unusual month.
The line that moved the market
CS2 hadn't come out of nowhere. The Verge noted that in the weeks before the announcement, an esports journalist had reported an overhauled CS:GO was in the works, references to a new game had turned up in Nvidia drivers, and Valve had filed a CS2 trademark.
The announcement settled the question that mattered most to item owners. Valve's CS2 page told players to "bring your entire CS:GO inventory with you to Counter-Strike 2", and said every item would "benefit from Source 2 lighting and materials". PC Gamer's report the next day put it simply: the news "sent valuations all over the place: But mainly upwards."
Record player numbers
The clearest measurable effect was on player numbers. CS:GO set a new all-time peak of 1,519,457 concurrent players on March 25, 2023, three days after the announcement, as GamesRadar and Destructoid both reported. Destructoid called it the third record in two months, since player numbers had already been climbing as rumours built.
Part of that rush had a specific cause. The CS2 Limited Test picked players partly on recent playtime, and Valve had to tell people that idling in CS:GO matches wouldn't help, as our article on the CS2 Limited Test explains.
What happened to prices, as reported
| Item | Reported move | Outlet and date |
|---|---|---|
| AWP, Lightning Strike | Sold for $450 to $500 in late February; sales up to $730 in the 48 hours before the report, lowest around $630 | PC Gamer, Mar 23, 2023 |
| AK-47, Asiimov | About $150 a month earlier, about $175 once rumours began, several sales near $200 in the previous 24 hours | PC Gamer, Mar 23, 2023 |
| Sticker, MOUZ (Gold), Stockholm 2021 | About $15 at its release in October 2021; selling for $270 to $300 in the previous 24 hours | PC Gamer, Mar 23, 2023 |
| CS:GO Weapon Case 3 | Doubled overnight, with hundreds of sales at about $5.50 | Game Rant, Mar 27, 2023 |
| Sticker Capsule 2 (2014) | Some variants valued at over $25, against a couple of cents a sale a year earlier | Game Rant, Mar 27, 2023 |
| Cheap skins such as the Five-SeveN, Contractor | From a few cents each to around $1 | Game Rant, Mar 27, 2023 |
PC Gamer added a warning that applies to every row. These figures tracked individual trades, and "one gun going for $730 spikes the graph"; afterwards the price usually dropped back. It described the valuations as "entirely speculative".
Why shiny finishes and stickers led
The reports agreed on what speculators were chasing. PC Gamer wrote that buyers were focusing on skins with lighting-sensitive and pearlescent finishes, which should look better under Source 2 lighting. Game Rant pointed to leaks suggesting that many unremarkable CS:GO cosmetics looked much better in the new engine, and offered a rule of thumb: an item that had more than doubled since March 22 was probably being bought for how it would look in CS2, while smaller rises reflected the extra players.
PC Gamer also flagged two smaller bets. CS2 let players inspect the Zeus, which set off talk of Zeus skins, and it showed players their own arms and legs, which meant patches on agents could be seen by their owners for the first time.
The test builds cut both ways. Two days after the announcement, Dexerto reported that holo stickers looked static in the Limited Test and that some pattern-based skins had shifted on the new weapon models. Our article on what changed for skins in CS2 covers how those issues were handled.
Case opening hit a record
Demand showed up in case opening too. Once the month was over, Game Rant (on April 3, 2023) and GosuGamers both reported, citing a community case-tracking site, that players had opened about 39.5 million cases in March 2023. GosuGamers compared that with 27.7 million in February and 17.9 million in January, and estimated spending at about $100 million for the month, working from a key price of around $2.50. These were estimates from opening counts, not figures from Valve.
What followed for stickers in 2023
The hype carried into the year's only Major. Valve put the BLAST.tv Paris Major stickers on sale on May 4, 2023, and they stayed on sale until CS2 launched on September 27. In January 2024 HLTV reported, citing team sources, that they had earned teams and players more than $110 million. HLTV gave two reasons: the unusually long sale, and CS2's arrival, which pushed CS:GO's average player count above one million for the first time in May and June. Our Paris Major article and guide to Major sticker capsules cover those stickers.
Reading these numbers now
Treat the March 2023 figures as what they were: snapshots of a speculative week, often based on a handful of sales. PC Gamer's own writer advised readers not to treat skins as an investment. If you want to judge how an item behaves over time, look at sales volume and the spread between listings rather than one record sale, as our guides to reading skin price history and how CS2 skin prices work explain. You can look up individual items on Prices.
Sources
- Valve announces Counter-Strike 2, a free replacement for CS:GO — The Verge
- Counter-Strike 2's reveal has sent the game's skins market wild — PC Gamer
- CSGO Skin Prices Go Wild After Counter-Strike 2 Reveal — Game Rant
- CSGO Players Spent a Ton of Money on Skins After the Reveal of Counter-Strike 2 — Game Rant
- CS:GO players bought almost twice the amount of skins after CS2 reveal — GosuGamers
- CS:GO is Steam's second-biggest game ever, clocking up over 1.5m concurrent players this weekend — GamesRadar+
- CS:GO smashes player record for the third time in 2023 — Destructoid
- Sources: Paris Major sticker earnings exceeded $110 million — HLTV.org
