Most expensive CS2 skins: the record sales from $61,000 to $1 million

The most expensive CS2 skins don't sell on the Steam Market, and their prices are rarely public. The highest reported sale is a StatTrak Factory New AK-47 | Case Hardened with pattern 661, which changed hands on June 5, 2024 for an undisclosed sum above $1 million. Below are the record sales the press has reported since 2018, each with its date and outlet. None of them is a current price.

Why record sales happen off Steam

Steam caps what a single item can be listed for. Steam Support's Community Market FAQ puts the maximum at about $1,800 per listing, limits a Steam Wallet to $2,000 and says money from Market sales can't be withdrawn. An item worth tens of thousands of dollars can't sell there, so top-end deals happen privately, often with a well-known trader acting as broker, or on third-party marketplaces.

That changes what a record means. There is no public ledger. Most figures below come from a broker's or buyer's own post that an outlet then reported, so treat them as reported prices, not audited ones.

How the record climbed: the most expensive CS:GO skin sales

The 2018 sale came the day after Cloud9 won the ELEAGUE Boston Major, and PC Gamer noted that the gun carried the autograph of that event's MVP, Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham. Its previous owner had paid $35,000 for it. Our Dragon Lore history covers where that copy came from.

The Wild Lotus went through a China-based third-party marketplace rather than a private deal, which is why its price is known to the cent. Dexerto put a plain Factory New Wild Lotus at about $10,000 at the time.

Both April 2023 deals were handled by the trader zipeL. The AK sold together with a Well-Worn Karambit | Case Hardened with pattern 387 for a combined total above $500,000, and zipeL called it the second-largest trade in Counter-Strike history. The Howl went at auction for $215,000, a price zipeL himself thought was cheap.

The $1 million AK-47 blue gem

Case Hardened is a finish whose blue, gold and silver layout depends on the pattern seed, and 661 is the most sought-after seed on the AK-47. Our guide to Case Hardened blue gems explains how the patterns work. The first StatTrak Factory New 661 was confirmed in January 2024, and Dexerto reported that it was valued at around $1.5 million at the time.

The sale was announced on June 5, 2024 by the two traders who brokered it, Sam "roflm0nster" Alexander and Oliver "zipeL" Behrensdorff. Neither named the buyer or the price. Roflm0nster wrote only that "$1m offers were rejected multiple times", which Dexerto read as a price of at least $1 million and the most ever paid for a gun skin. Still, it isn't the item with the biggest number attached to it.

The most expensive CS2 knife is an offer, not a sale

That number belongs to a Factory New copy of the same knife and pattern: a Karambit | Case Hardened with seed 387, the best-known blue gem on that knife. Dexerto reported that its owner bought it in 2016 for just over $100,000 and in 2021 turned down an offer of €1.2 million, about $1.5 million at the time, calling it low.

Dexerto still called it the most expensive item in Counter-Strike in June 2024, but the figure behind that is a refused offer, not a sale. The 387 that did change hands in the April 2023 deal was a Well-Worn copy, valued at around $100,000.

Knife records also predate October 22, 2025, when Valve let five Covert skins be traded up into a knife or gloves and so gave knives a new source of supply. Our article on the CS2 market crash covers how knife prices reacted.

The most expensive CS:GO stickers

The costliest stickers are holos from the two Katowice 2014 Major capsules, EMS Katowice 2014 Legends and EMS Katowice 2014 Challengers. On September 5, 2023, Dust2.com.br reported, citing a skin specialist, that a single Sticker | Titan (Holo) | Katowice 2014 had sold for $80,000 on a third-party marketplace, double the previous record for that sticker there. The same report recalled a 2021 deal in which eight Titan Holos sold together for $500,000, more than $62,500 each, then the highest price on record for one.

Stickers also explain most of the weapon records above. Dexerto put each Titan Holo at about $60,000 in April 2023 and said the four of them took the 661 AK from a $150,000 skin to a $400,000 one. On the Wild Lotus, each Reason Gaming Holo was valued at about $40,000. Our guide to Katowice 2014 stickers explains how they became so scarce.

Reading a record sale

• Reported is not verified. The 2024 AK price was never disclosed. The 2020 Howl figure was a streamer's estimate after the buyer said that $130,000, the number first reported, was only what he would resell it for.
• One copy is not the item's price. Each record belongs to one gun with a specific float, pattern and stickers. In July 2020, when the stickered Howl set its record, Dexerto pegged a plain StatTrak Factory New Howl at roughly $5,180.
• Dates matter. A price from 2018 or 2023 tells you what one buyer paid then, under the rules of the time.

For ordinary copies of these skins, compare recent completed sales on Prices rather than one-off records.

Sources

• Community Market FAQ — Steam Support
• CS:GO 'Dragon Lore' AWP skin sells for more than $61,000 — PC Gamer
• M4A4 Howl CSGO skin reportedly sells for world-record $100,000 — Dexerto
• CSGO AK-47 skin sells for $160,000 in one of the biggest skin sales ever — Dexerto
• AK-47 CSGO skin & knife sell for $500,000 as Counter-Strike skins explode in price — Dexerto
• Rare M4A4 Howl with iBUYPOWER stickers sold for 215K — Fragster
• Counter-Strike 2's most expensive skin sells for jaw-dropping $1 million — Dexerto
• Sticker holográfico raro é vendido por quase R$ 400 mil — Dust2.com.br (in Portuguese)