$2.5 billion in losses. Why the Counter-Strike 2 market crashed and whether it's worth investing again.

Players of the multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike 2 lost tens of thousands of dollars invested in virtual items overnight. The inventory of esports athlete Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer lost value almost $40,000, and the famous footballer Neymar slumped down for $50,000.

The market crash affected everyone who had expensive items in their inventory (this is a personal storage area for items). Maincast commentator Konstantin "Leniniw" Sivko, in a comment LIGA.net says that at the peak of the drop, the value of his inventory fell from $11,000 to $8,300, and some owners of rare skins (the appearance of an item in the game) lost up to 50% of their investment. Streamer Oleg "Thunder" Gromika lost 120,000 UAH on just one in-game knife.

The cause of the massive losses was an update to Counter-Strike 2, released by Valve on October 23rd. (Valve is the developer and publisher of the game.) The update allowed players to craft the most expensive assets on the market – knife and glove skins – from relatively cheap items. These skins were previously expensive due to their rarity and difficulty to obtain.

As a result, at the end of October, the market capitalization of the online game Counter-Strike 2 fell by almost half. On October 18th, the market capitalization exceeded $6 billion, while on October 26th it was only $3.5 billion. The market is now gradually recovering and as of November 10th stands at $5.1 billion. This is according to data from the monitoring service Price Empire.

In this material LIGA.net explains how the skin economy in Counter-Strike 2 works, why the update caused the crash, how much the market lost (and gained), whether the situation could have been predicted, and whether skins remain an investment tool.