Oct 27, 2025 11:23:00

Counter-Strike 2 skin market collapses after update wipes out $3 billion overnight

The game 'Counter-Strike 2' has been updated, and items that were previously only available through 'gacha' can now be obtained through trading. This has caused the value of some items that were previously traded for large amounts of real money to plummet.

Ludicrous $6 billion Counter Strike 2 skins market crashes, loses $3 billion overnight — game update destroys inventories, collapses market | Tom's Hardware

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/ludicrous-usd6-billion-counter-strike-2-skins-market-crashes-loses-usd3-billion-overnight-game-update-destroys-inventories-collapses-market

In-game items available in 'Counter-Strike 2' are often traded for real money, and it is not uncommon for high-value items to fetch tens of millions of yen.

There is no way to obtain such items reliably, and until now, players had to rely on 'gacha' which randomly dispenses them.

However, an update to Counter-Strike 2

introduced a system that allowed players to collect low-value items and exchange them for high-value items, which significantly reduced the difficulty of obtaining items and caused the value of rare items to plummet.

According to

Price Empire , a service that tracks Counter-Strike 2 item prices, the market size, which exceeded $6.08 billion (approximately 930 billion yen) just before the update was announced, lost an effective value of $3 billion (approximately 458 billion yen) overnight.

Some people make a living as 'traders' of items, so the community has posted comments encouraging these people to maintain their peace of mind.

Tom's Hardware, which reported on the incident, said, 'Some argue that, like the stock market, mass hysteria is fueling the situation. However, many trading professionals have expressed concern and are withdrawing from the market. Developer Valve has often been accused of failing to regulate the market and allowing gambling to run rampant, and complaints that items are too expensive for casual players have been going on for over a decade. These strict changes may be a sign of future market trends.'