One of the most unique parts about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has always been its massively successful gun skins marketplace, through the rise of skin gambling in the past and the more recent peak in players with the new Counter-Strike 2 on the horizon.
Related: CS:GO skins see massive price spikes as CS2’s release approaches
Simply put, there is no online marketplace like the one CS:GO has had over the past decade, and there’s no better way to illustrate that than taking a look at some of the game’s most expensive offerings.
What are the most expensive skins in CS:GO?
Souvenir Factory New AWP | Dragon Lore: $400,000+
No better place to start such a heavy-hitting list than arguably the most iconic gun skin in all of Counter-Strike—the AWP Dragon Lore. This stunning golden dragon-based skin resides in the 2014 Cobblestone Collection, one of the rarest skin collection cases to date.
The Dragon Lore is the only covert or “red” labeled skin in the case, making it difficult to acquire at around a 0.64 percent chance.
It gets even rarer when talking about the Souvenir version of the rarest AWP skin. Souvenir versions of skins, which include randomized golden player and team stickers, can only drop during CS:GO Major tournaments, and specifically from Cobblestone packages—which no longer drop as the map has rotated out of the active duty pool.
With the Dragon Lore being around for nearly a decade and its insane odds of pulling from its case, the price has only skyrocketed over the years. Currently, there is only one listed Souvenir Factory New AWP Dragon Lore for sale. As of early May, the biggest offer sits just north of $434,000. Life-changing money for one of the rarest skins in all Counter-Strike.
Factory New Karambit | Case Hardened “Blue Gem”: $1.4-1.5 Million
Now for the big guns, or knife in this case. Before discussing the monumental price tag, it is important to distinguish what a “Blue Gem” pattern is. Case Hardened skins have been around for a long time in CS:GO (and spoiler alert: this won’t be the last one on this list).
The skin type’s allure comes down to its mix of colors on a gold casing surface. Each pattern type can produce thousands of different color patterns, but there is one specific pattern to rule them all. The “Blue Gem” pattern refers to a Case Hardened skin where the entirety of the visible skin is covered blue with no other color visible. This extremely rare pattern has a specific template in the CS:GO code for the Karambit Case Hardened, #387.
This obviously super rare skin and pattern has become infamous in the Counter-Strike community partly due to its latest owner. A couple of years back, a Steam user known as Newb Rage purchased a Factory New Karambit Case Hardened with the Blue Gem pattern for about $100,000.
Since then, with the CS skin market only growing more and more, and the Blue Gem Karambit becoming rarer and rarer, Newb Rage has received a multitude of offers. The most recent offer: an insane $1.2 million Euros, or around $1.5 million USD. Shockingly, Newb Rage turned the offer down, insisting the offer was too low.
Regardless of whether or not Newb Rage took the offer, the precedent set by the sheer money proposed has skyrocketed the Blue Gem Karambit into the record books as the most expensive skin in Counter-Strike history.
Factory New Sport Gloves | Pandora’s Box: $69,000
What better way to hold that shiny new knife than with a pair of very expensive gloves? It is weird to think about, but glove skins have actually now been a part of CS:GO for six-and-a-half years. Since their release in Nov. 2016, a multitude of different hand wraps have slotted themselves into the CS skins market.
That said, few have had a meteoric rise quite like the Pandora’s Box pair.
A Factory New pair of these gloves aren’t Souvenir D-Lore rare, but still pretty hard to come by. Currently there are only thirteen factory-new pairs of Pandora’s Box gloves available to purchase. Just a month ago the flashy purple hand wraps would run a buyer just north of $46,000; a bargain of a price in today’s market.
Like a multitude of skins in CS:GO right now, inflation due to the hype for CS2 has jacked up the price of Pandora’s Box gloves. Currently, the lowest bid for these lucrative gloves sits around the $69,000 USD dollar mark. That is a 50-percent markup in just a month’s time. If collectors are looking for one of the most expensive pairs of CSGO gloves, look no further.
AK-47 | Case Hardened 661 Pattern: 30,000+
The Case Hardened skin type is not unique to knives in CS:GO, and its most expensive gun-variant is home to the AK-47. Just like the Karambit earlier, this skin’s most expensive pattern comes with a whole lot of blue. The #661 pattern of the AK-47 Case Hardened has an all-blue finish across the top of the gun from barrel to stock. While the entire gun isn’t blue, like the play side of a Karambit Blue Gem, this pattern has by far the most visible blue and drives a steep price for that very reason.
Currently, 661 Pattern AK-47 Case Hardened skins go for around $30,000 to $35,000 USD on their own. However, one special Minimal Wear version just recently became the most expensive CSGO skin to actually be sold.
Skins trader zipeL recently announced he’d parted ways with his StatTrack Minimal Wear #661 pattern AK-47 for a whopping $400,000 USD. Now, most of that price was inflated by the four Titan Katowice 2015 Holos on the gun, four of the rarest stickers in Counter-Strike. Still, the fact that a different Case Hardened Blue Gem variant holds the actual record for the largest transaction is impressive.
With Counter-Strike 2 tentatively set for a summer release, don’t expect the skin market to cool off anytime soon either. A couple of months could pass and the prices of these items could be double what they are today.
