Skins have been a huge part of Counter-Strike since Valve introduced them in CS:GO in 2013. They made the game more beautiful and allowed Valve to fund the competitions in the beginning. All the cosmetics carried away to CS2 and nowadays we have multiple options to buy CS2 skins.
If you’re new to CS2 and want to upgrade your inventory, learn how to buy CS2 skins directly from Valve, the Steam Market, or third-party websites.
How to buy CS2 skins
There are three great options to buy CS2 skins nowadays. You can get them from skin cases, search for skins on the Steam Market as thousands of players sell their items there, or search on third-party websites.
Skin cases
In CS2 you can get skin cases via the Weekly Care Package, or you can search for specific skin cases in the Steam Market. After you get the skin case you want, all you need to do is buy a key directly from Valve in CS2.
Here’s how to search for skin cases on the Steam Market:
- Open Steam.
- Select “Market” from the “Community” drop-down menu.
- Select “Counter-Strike 2” in the “Browse by Game” menu on the left.
- Look for the skin cases.
To open the skin case you got from the Weekly Care Package or the Steam Market, launch CS2, go to your Inventory, select the skin case, and click on Unlock Container. If you don’t have a key already, Valve will give you an option to buy it.
Steam Market
A lot of players simply prefer to buy the CS2 skins they want directly from other players in the Steam Market instead of trying their luck with the skin cases. Here’s how to look for skins in the Steam Market.
- Open Steam.
- Select “Market” from the “Community” drop-down menu.
- Select “Counter-Strike 2” in the “Browse by Game” menu on the left.
- From there on, you can use the search bar to look for a particular skin.
- Or, better yet, you can click on Show advanced options and add some filters like skin rarity and weapons.
Third-party skin websites
At this point, there are countless third-party websites where players can buy, sell, or trade CS2 skins. They all work relatively similarly: You log in with your Steam account and search for skins or skin cases.
While I can’t list all the third-party websites that are trustworthy as I haven’t used all of them, I’ve never had a problem with BitSkins, CS.Money, or TradeIt.gg. You can either make a deposit with real money to buy CS2 skins on these sites or make a trade with skins you already own.
