A seemingly minor Counter-Strike 2 update has completely upended the game's skins market. Valve's free-to-play shooter is just as, if not more, known for its cosmetics marketplace as it is for its actual gameplay, with many rare items reaching exorbitant prices. Now, some Counter-Strike 2 skins have tanked in value after the recent patch.
The Counter-Strike series has long been a staple of PC gaming, and it's reached new heights with the likes of CS:GO and CS2. In April 2025, Counter-Strike 2 drew a staggering 1.86 million concurrent players, breaking its own record player count for the third month in a row. The game's robust skins market certainly plays a role in driving its massive popularity, but a small patch has just thoroughly disrupted this aspect of the FPS.
An October 22 update brought several changes to Counter-Strike 2, most of which were optimizations and bug fixes, but two threw a wrench into the works of the game's skins market. After the patch, players can now trade in five StatTrak Covert items for one StatTrak knife. StatTrak Covert cosmetics, while relatively uncommon, are far from Counter-Strike 2's rarest skins, but StatTrak knives are...
