Skins are among the essential elements of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Although they do not affect the functionality of the weapon worn, both professional and amateur players prefer to have the best skins in their inventory. Okay, here is the question: if the skins in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive do not change how weapons operate, what makes them different from one another? Why are some skins in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive so different in price?

Weapon & Skins: The Most Important Features

There is a rationale behind why so many people spend too much to get the best skin possible. Here are some important features of skin:

Float values

A float value is used to determine the condition of the skin to be purchased. In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the more you wear a CS:GO item, the more it loses its value, and float value is a metric to see how users are wearing items. The float value in CS:GO ranges from zero to one. Skins possessing zero float values are the ones in perfect condition. Reversely, the float value approaches one as you wear the skin. As you may have guessed, zero-float-valued skins are more expensive.

Some players are trying to build a nice inventory with the purpose of trading in the future and getting some margin. Finding undervalued skins, these people try not to use them in battle to avoid an increase in their float values, which can be another indicator of the importance of a float value on CS:GO skins.

CS:GO Weapon Container Odds

Another important feature of skins is their container odds. As you may know, one method for obtaining skins is to open a container or case. The items included in a container will have different drop chances. Typically, more valuable, popular, or limited skins will have a lower drop chance. So if you get one, you’ve had a lucky day. So, a lower drop chance means a high rarity level. This information is also true for other popular games. Rust cases work with the same mechanism. Skins and all other CS:GO items are grouped based on their rarity levels, with Consumer grade being the lowest and Contraband the highest rarity level.

CS:GO Skin Pattern

The pattern of a skin is another critical feature that needs to be mentioned. As said earlier, skins are aesthetic items in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The results of a survey conducted among the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community show that well-designed skins tend to have higher popularity, price, and rarity.

Open Cases for Better Skins

Case opening is a popular method to get a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin. The CS:GO cases are rewards that one gets through random drops for the completion of operations missions. Cases can only be opened with keys, which you may acquire directly from the Steam market or any other third-party platform offering trade services.

Factors Affecting CS: GO Skins’ Value

The important features mentioned above are critical for skins but the actual values of skins can be summarized into three groups

  • Popularity Factor – Popular skins are usually high-priced. Wait, maybe high-priced skins are popular? Anyways, you got the idea. The popularity of a CS:GO item is usually defined considering a few factors such as its rarity, the professional CS:GO players own, etc.  
  • New Skins – Real-life economic trends can also be observed in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Publicly available statistics show that the demand for newly released CS:GO items is usually high. More demands mean a higher price. However, this factor is relative from skin to skin. Please, do not take this fact as the only factor, while choosing which skin to get, because there are plenty of examples of skins that were released about a decade ago and have both great popularity, rarity, and monetary value.
  • Player Numbers – The number of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive users, possessing a specific skin is also important. Actually, this factor can be considered as a combination of two factors mentioned above: popularity and rarity. Rarer skins are obtained by a small group of people, because of a lack of supply. Because only special gamers have them, the value of these skins is usually higher. There is a dilemma again. In some cases, the skins are so rare that most of the players online are not aware of their existence, which in turn, decreases the skin’s popularity.

To Wrap Up!

To conclude, skins are important items in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and they have several important features that need to be mentioned, such as float values, rarity, and design. A float value defines how worn the skin is, and it ranges from zero to one, zero being the one in perfect condition and one being used so many times. Rarity usually refers to the community’s ability to obtain a specific Counter-Strike: Global Offensive item. The design of the skin is also important. According to the statistics available, the skins with a nice design are inclined to have a higher value.

Besides, we talked about three factors affecting the value of skins in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive market, which are its popularity factor, the release date, and the number of players owning the skin. The skin with the most popularity, the most recent release date, and a smaller number of gamers owning it is usually more expensive than others.