The Most Expensive CS2/CS:GO Knives | Reasons for High Cost
If we don’t take into account souvenir skins with exclusive stickers, knives are the rarest and most expensive items in Counter-Strike. Some knives are like precious gems for any game inventory. Why is this? And which CS2 knives have the biggest price on the market? Explanations and examples are in this article on DMarket Blog.
Reasons for High Cost
There are a few reasons for the mind-blowing value of knives in CS2. Let’s discuss all of them in detail.
Stylish! Skillful!
First of all, it’s hard not to notice the emotional aspect of a custom knife skin. This type of weapon is always with a player, regardless of their team role or the economic situation in a round. You don’t need to buy the knife during the buying phases. It’s already in your “pocket”.
Practically, a CS2 knife can be used for quick running, as with this weapon, the characters have higher movement speed. Pros do that a lot, showing off their cool knives in the process. If you also take out a knife to run in the same areas of Counter-Strike 2 maps, you will create the pro vibes in your game.
The knives are stylish alright. But what is skillful about them? The weapon is totally dreadful. One strike, and your opponent is dead! But to perform such a kill, you need to come really close to the victim, which is insanely difficult. CS2 knife kills are spectacular to witness, and they perfectly highlight a player’s high skill level.
Always having a knife with you, using it for the practical purpose of quick running, looking especially stylish with a knife skin, and emphasizing your Counter-Strike skills with knife kills—these factors are the reason for the popularity of this weapon in the game community.
The Rarest
The game gives a default knife for every player as it gives Vanilla versions of all the weapons. To get a custom skin, you need to obtain it from a drop, case, or trade. Knife skins don’t drop directly in the game. And the chance of getting one from a case… well, let’s say it is close to zero.
In our guide on CS2 case odds, we list the type of weapons you can get from such a container and clear drop probabilities for each. Knife skins are included in the category of Exceedingly Rare Special items, alongside gloves. If you open a case, you have around a 0.26% chance to get one.
This is the reason for the high price of all knives in Counter-Strike 2. It overlaps with the general popularity of the weapon and makes most players want to add a knife to their collection.
Impressive Shapes and Animations
Here we have a new layer in the hype around Counter-Strike knives. This reason explains why some knife skins are more expensive than others.
The game contains different types of knives, and each has a few color variations. The knife’s size and shape matter here. Some knives stand out thanks to this.
- M9 Bayonet is huge, aggressive, and brutal.
- Bayonet is somewhat smaller and more elegant than the M9 version, but it still looks great thanks to its size and straightforward power.
- Karambit has a curved blade and creates suggests sneaky offense.
- Talon Knife is similar to Karambit, and it’s also popular among players.
- Flip Knife looks simply deadly with its big curvy blade.
- Stiletto Knife is a reminder that a sting delivers quick death.
- Butterfly Knife is rather small, and sits well in the hand. It’s one of the most popular knives in CS2 (check out the best skins for Butterfly Knife) because of its animation. Players may use some knives in the game, and nothing too special happens on the screen. But a few knives have unique animations, and players love them.
- Butterfly Knife — the game character plays with this knife, hiding the blade and then opening it. It’s arguably the best knife animation in Counter-Strike.
- Karambit — the character puts their finger in the hole on the handle, and spins it.
These are examples of knife shapes and animations that support the higher price of some items.
Exceptional Patterns
To understand the texture pattern feature, imagine a pretty big image—say, covering your whole monitor screen. Then, you take a knife and place it over that image. Only part of the whole picture will make it to the blade: color gradients or other elements of the image.
Pattern indexes are numeral indications of exactly where the knife was put over the image. Specific pattern indexes may create especially beautiful variations. For example, only one color from the whole gradient might be visible, or a specific shape distinguishable.
Perfect Float
The Float Value sure plays its role in the price of CS2 skins, but it’s not the most important factor. Naturally, better-looking Factory New and Minimal Wear skins cost more. But rare pattern indexes are a crucial element—for example, a Battle-Scarred Doppler Emerald will be more expensive. The knife skin floats matter within one type of knife and one texture pattern variation.
Exceptional patterns is the main reason why several CS2 knives are so expensive. Having them from a case is incredibly rare, and people are ready to pay thousands of dollars to have such uniqueness in their possession.
The Most Expensive CS2 Knives
The combination of reasons from the previous section has created some very costly knives. Here we list 10 examples of the most expensive knives in CS2 and explain why they are so valuable. The list is not to wow you with the big numbers but to help readers better understand this area of the skins trading industry.
Please note that the price tag is only a reference to reflect the possibilities. The market situation changes dynamically, and to know the exact cost of any knife here, visit the current offers on DMarket’s CS2 knife listings..
Also, the price depends on extra factors, such as the Float Value, the StatTrak feature, and slight differences between pattern variations—that’s why we mention a price range for all the expensive CS2 knives in our list.
Karambit | Case Hardened (Blue Gem)
- Approximate Price: $1,500,000
Karambit | Case Hardened (Blue Gem) is the most expensive knife in Counter-Strike.
Pattern indexes are an extremely important factor for all Case Hardened skins. When a knife skin has a lot of blue on it, this item becomes super valuable. Such an occasion is rare, though. And it is almost impossible with the Blue Gem variation—the blade is fully blue, with no yellow/brown areas at all.
Only one such Karambit | Case Hardened (Blue Gem) has been spotted on the market. That’s why its price is beyond comparison. Sure, this is not a real deal, only the desire of the knife’s owner, so take the sum with a pinch of salt. But the offer is unique and unrepeatable. It’s the most expensive knife in CS2!
Other variations of Karambit | Case Hardened have the price range around $650 - $59,000 on the market. These knives also have dominating blue. If there is more yellow on the blade, the price can be around $3–5k.
Butterfly Knife | Gamma Doppler Emerald
- Approximate Price: $12,500 - $15,700
CS2 Gamma Doppler skins have a few phases, and Emerald is one of them. The bright green color is the main distinguishing feature of this knife. And unlike other phases, Emerald has no other colors on the blade. Such a variation is super rare and therefore extremely valuable. It’s the Butterfly Knife again, and this boosts the price even more.
Buy Butterfly Knife | Gamma Doppler Emerald
Karambit | Doppler Sapphire
- Approximate Price: $7,000 - $11,900
Like with the previous Doppler skin in our list, this knife has a dominance of only one color—it’s bright blue for the Sapphire variant.
Generally, Ruby and Sapphire Doppler skins have a relatively equal rarity level. Their beauty is rather a subjective point. Still, Karambit itself is a more expensive knife in Counter-Strike, thanks to its shape.
Buy Karambit | Doppler Sapphire
Talon Knife | Doppler Ruby
- Approximate Price: $7,000 - $11,900$4,500 - $5,900
This phase of Talon Knife | Doppler is simply red, with no traces of other colors. The knife looks great in the game, and therefore the price is very high. Sure, getting this specific variation is highly unlikely, so market trades are the only source of this skin.
Buy Talon Knife | Doppler Ruby
Bayonet | Gamma Doppler Emerald
- Approximate Price: $4,000 - $7,700
The elegant shape of this knife nicely combines with the light green color of the Gamma Doppler Emerald variation. The CS2 Bayonet Knife is rare enough to support such a price level. But the main reason for being so expensive is the unique Emerald phase.
Buy Bayonet | Gamma Doppler Emerald
Butterfly Knife | Fade
- Approximate Price: $3,000 - $4,700
Not only do we have the Butterfly Knife here, with its exceptional in-game animation, but also, the color pattern has some extremely rare variations.
Fade consists of a gradient from yellow to orange, red, and purple. The most expensive Butterfly Knife | Fade skins have a big area of purple on the blade tip and almost no orange at all.
Butterfly Knife | Lore
- Approximate Price: $800 - $2,600
This knife is luxurious! The blade is gold, and the sharp side has a beautiful pattern on it. The Lore skin is available for different knives. It looks awesome with some big blades, such as Karambit and M9 Bayonet. But the Butterfly knife is pretty expensive thanks to its unique animation.
Butterfly Knife | Marble Fade
- Approximate Price: $1,900 - $2,500
The Marble Fade skin is among the most colorful in the whole collection of CS2 knives and belongs to the list of the best skins in CS2. The texture contains a gradient of yellow, red, and blue, and the pattern indexes may cause this full combination to be placed on the blade. Such tri-color variations are very valuable. In addition to this, we have the Butterfly Knife, which is basically the most expensive one in Counter-Strike 2.
Buy Butterfly Knife | Marble Fade
M9 Bayonet | Crimson Web
- Approximate Price: $600 - $9,740
The Crimson Web texture pattern features a chaotic dark spider web over the red background. Unlike some other items in our list of the most expensive CS2 knives, M9 Bayonet | Crimson Web doesn’t really have especially rare variations. Thanks to the big blade, the web is nicely visible, and skin looks just beautiful.
Some players prefer having many web centers on the knife. This doesn’t affect the item’s cost significantly.
Skeleton Knife | Slaughter
- Approximate Price: $700 - $1,140
This combination of the knife shape and the texture pattern creates a special appeal around Skeleton Knife | Slaughter and makes it very expensive.
The Skeleton Knife in Counter-Strike features a big piece of metal with tape instead of the handle. The Slaughter skin has abstract lines, which form a pattern similar to a tiger skin on the blade. The vibes of wild power are real here!
Buy Skeleton Knife | Slaughter
Trading and Collector’s Perspective
From the traders’ point of view, investing in CS2 knives is a high-risk, high-reward affair. On the one hand, the prices of unique items are stable and show the tendency to grow. On the other hand, when there are only one or two offers of a specific skin variation, it becomes hard to evaluate the item fairly.
The risk of paying too much is real, as with such items there may be no offers at all for quite a while, and their value can be subjective.
You need to have proper experience of the market and use reliable platforms. It’s also a good idea to follow our anti-scam recommendations.
From a collector’s perspective, rare and expensive CS2 knives are an excellent addition to any inventory. Don’t hesitate to purchase one if you have such an opportunity. Still, be careful with the uncertainty of the price. Undertake proper research—for example, visit the listings on DMarket regularly to not miss exclusive offers. Look out for sales. The best situation is when someone unfamiliar with the market decides to sell their knife for a lower price. You need to be lucky and quick not to miss this.
The most expensive CS2 knives immediately bring the community’s attention to its owners. It is one thing when you want to keep your items in the inventory. But when you take them out to the game, make sure your skills correspond to the prestigious level of your knife in Counter-Strike 2!
Trade on the go - install the mobile app of DMarket from Google Play or App Store. Never miss great prices and unique skins. The best CS2, Dota 2, and TF2 marketplace is always at hand!
DMarket Blog is a great source of helpful guides to improve your game results. Sure, we also regularly post info about the skins trading industry. Stay tuned and and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
