Cases - also referred to as crates - are the primary way players unbox new skins in Counter-Strike, much like loot boxes in other games. They play a major role in the Counter-Strike economy and were among the first items introduced to the game. Cases are classified as a subcategory of containers and can be opened by players using a matching key. During this process, both the key and the case are consumed and permanently removed from the player's inventory. In return you will receive one item from inside the case. Each case contains a predefined selection of skins, referred to as a collection, which is unique to that specific case. These skins are distributed across different rarity tiers – starting from Mil-Spec, going up through Restricted, Classified, and Covert, with a small chance of receiving an ultra-rare item, known as the Rare Special Item (such as knives or gloves). Rare Special Items are not technically part of a case’s collection. Instead, they exist as a separate tier that can be shared across multiple containers. For example, several cases may feature the same set of knives with the same finishes.

The rarer an item is, the higher its value tends to be and the lower the chance of unboxing it. However, rarity isn't the only factor that determines an item’s price. The skin design and the popularity of the weapon it’s applied to, and even specific finishes or patterns have influence on market value. A good-looking skin for widely-used weapon like the AK-47 or AWP will often fetch a higher price, even over rarer items for less-used weapons following the laws of supply and demand.

Keys can be purchased from the in-game shop for a fixed price. In the past, keys were tradable, but Valve removed this feature in 2019 with the Key Change Update. Since then, any key purchased through the in-game shop is permanently bound to the buyer’s account and can no longer be traded or resold. This is why you may still see keys listed on the Steam Community Market or third-party marketplaces. These are older, tradable keys that were bought before the update. However, you should not buy these with the intention of using them to open cases, as they are often more expensive than simply purchasing a new key from the in-game shop. These older keys are considered leftovers and are mainly of interest to collectors or traders. In short: they still exist on the market, but their higher price reflects their rarity and value as collector items - not their practical use.

Valve regularly adds new cases to the game, often releasing them alongside major updates, operations, or in the armory. As a result, older cases are gradually phased out and moved between different drop pools. This process is an important mechanic in the Counter-Strike ecosystem and will be explained in more detail later in this wiki. This system has a significant impact on case prices - so much so that many older cases have become more expensive over time. The limited supply combined with consistent demand makes cases one of the most popular long-term investments in the game. For a deeper look at this, check out the investing chapter.

The history of cases starts with the infamous Arms Deal Update released on 14. August 2013, which added the first cases to CS:GO, namely the eSports 2013 Case and the CS:GO Weapon Case. Cases were met with mixed reactions, as the items were criticized by some players for being just a cosmetic change. Today it’s safe to say this update was one of the most important ones in the history of the game, marking the beginning of the skin economy as we know it today. Since then skins in general have been a huge success not only for Valve but also for players, traders, third-party businesses and everyone involved.

Valve has continously added new cases to the game slowing down over time, to currently 1-2 weapon cases each year. Valve has never been consistent with the releases of new weapon cases as they rarely announce new cases in advance

Exact Release Dates:

Below you can find a table showcasing the release dates of every single case including their order, the release day and the wait time between each case

• Most recently added: Fever Case
• Average wait Time: 106.18 days
• Longest wait Time: 361 days
• Most common release day: Wednesday (last 15 cases was a friday)

There are several options to get cases:

• Weekly Drop
• Steam Market / Trading / Third-party marketplaces
• Operations and Armory

Weekly Drop

In order to receive cases from the weekly drop, you have to meet a few requirements. Since the Adjustments to Non Prime update your account needs to have the Prime Status Upgrade, which can be purchased from the steam store. The upgrade not only makes it possible to receive the weekly drop but also improves the matchmaking experience as you can only get matched with other players which also own the Prime Status upgrade and gives you access to further upgrades like the Armory Pass or the Major Viewer Pass. After you purchased the upgrade, you will have to level up your XP Rank by playing on official matchmaking servers. You will receive your weekly drop with the first XP up rank of the week. So the maximum amount of cases you can receive is one weapon case per week per account.

Valve updated the drop mechanic several times over the last years. Until 6th March 2021 it was possible to receive case drops from the Non-Prime Drop Pool without having the Prime Status Upgrade. As mentioned the Adjustments to Non Prime update however, those cases moved to the rare drop pool and players without prime cant receive cases anymore. Also the drop mechanic was different before the update on 6th September 2023.

Steam Market / Trading / Third-party marketplaces

Those are the best options if you want to get a lot of cases in a short amount of time. You can purchase any amount of cases from steam or third-party marketplaces for their current market price. You can also trade items with your friends or trusted traders. We dont recommend trading with other players unless you know who you are dealing with, because there are a lot of bad actors around and you can easily get scammed. Same goes with third party marketplaces. Make sure to only login and use trusted sites. You can find a list of known marketplaces here.

Operations and Armory

Operations and the Armory are another good source for the limited-time cases tied to the event. In order to receive cases you need to purchase the operation pass or the armory pass. This allows you to farm stars by completing missions or getting XP from playing on official matchmaking servers. Those stars can be redeemed for cases in the Armory/Operation shop. Typically the price is two stars per case.

Case opening is very popular among the CS2 playerbase. Many Youtubers and streamers are doing regular case openings especially when new skins are released. In order to open a case the player has to first own the case which he received via one of the described ways. The case will then appear in your inventory until you sell, trade or open it. To open the case click on it and select open case. The next screen will present you with the option to either rent or open the case. If you select open you have to first buy a key unless you already have one. You can then use the key and open the case. You will see the opening animation and receive the item it lands on. If you see the Rare Special Item symbol you are guaranteed to get it.

Keys can always be bought for a fixed price from the in-game store. Keys can only be used once and are used up after opening a case. As mentioned earlier the game also let’s you rent skins from a certain case. So instead of Open to Keep, you have to click Open to Rent. This also consumes the key and the case. In return you receive every skin in the case excluding the rare special items in a random condition for seven days. Meaning you can get lucky and receive the skin in Factory New but also in Battle-Scarred. You can then equip the skins and use them in-game. After the seven days passed the item will automatically disappear from your inventory. Renting is far less popular then opening but can be a good alternative to try out new skins, especially at new releases when prices are still very high.

How the outcome is determined

When opening a case the outcome is completely determined by randomness within the case collection. So it’s not only the item which get’s randomly picked from the collection set depending on the rarity but also:

• Float value
• Category (StatTrak or Normal)
• Pattern Index

Float Value

Every weapon skin has a minimum and a maximum float value within 0 and 1. There majority of skins have 0 as min and 1 as their max. That’s also the reason why some skins dont exist in a certain condition. Let’s have a look at the Mac-10 Sakkaku for example. It has a minimum float of 0.21 and a maximum float of 0.79. So naturally you cant receive the item in Factory New or Minimal Wear condition. For reference, here’s the wear value table.

When a case is opened by a player the unboxed item will have a random float value between the min and max number. It's not ceompletely random, the float value distribution follows certain rules. There are no official numbers from Valve so we rely on community data once again. There was an excellent analysis done by csfloat which examined this topic. In summary their findings led to the following distribution for skins with min float 0 and max float 1:

Category

Category is much simpler than the other two parameters. The relation between Normal and StatTrak is 10 to 1. So 1 of every 10 skins is a stattrak version

Paint Seed/Pattern Index

The paint seed determines the exact placement of a skin’s patter/texture on a weapon. It's a number between 1 and 1000 that's used as an input for a random number generator, influencing the shift and rotation of the skin and wear textures. Think of it as a seed for the "randomness" of a pattern. Each skin with a paint-based pattern has a unique paint seed. From cases you can actually receive only paint seed from 1-999. Paint seed 1000 can only be received from tradeups. The effect of the paint seed varies depending on the skin. Some skins have noticeable pattern variations based on the seed (like AK-47 | Case Hardened), while others may have less visible differences.

The economy of the Counter-Strike market operates on fundamental principles of supply and demand. Players can freely determine a price which they want to charge for their items. If no other users is willing to pay your price, you would have to lower the price until your item gets sold. This leads to a market price which also fluctuates over time. A lot of the case trading still happens on the SCM, cases are continously at the front page of the steam community market. Many players are selling off their weekly drops because for such cheap items the effort is not worth it to list on a 3rd party marketplace. The manual effort for selling large amount of cases is often rather high.

Supply Dynamics:

Case supply in the market is determined by several factors:

• Weekly Drop Rates
• Ease of Selling
• Case Farming
• Investors selling of their stock

Supply is generally a long-term force. Shifts in drop rates or farming trends often take weeks or months to significantly impact market availability.

Demand Dynamics:

• Unboxing Hype
• Investor Demand/FOMO buying
• News/Game Updates
• Case popularity

Because buying is easier and faster than selling, sudden spikes in demand often lead to sharp price increases before supply can catch up.

Historical price developments

For years, many cases traded at the minimum Steam Market price of $0.03. This began to change after the Adjustments to Non-Prime update, which limited case drops to Prime users, reducing the number of new cases entering the market and tightening supply. Also Case farming was very much impacted by this update. Supply couldn’t match the ongoing demand for cases and prices slowly started to rise. Unless Valve introduces significant changes to the drop system it’s very much likely that we will never see prices at 3 cents ever again.

With the release of CS:GO in China on September 11, 2017, by Perfect World, the team provided details on the probabilities for item qualities in cases, in compliance with regulations from the Ministry of Culture. This policy required that Chinese video games featuring lootboxes must disclose their odds. Below are the expected odds when opening weapon cases in both relative percentages and absolute numbers: