The latest update to Counter-Strike 2 (CS2), one of Steam’s most played games with over 30 million monthly players, has caused a major upheaval in the game’s massive economic landscape. The update essentially reversed the skin economy by changing the method of obtaining knives and gloves, the game’s most expensive and rare items.

Counter-Strike 2 Market is in turmoil

The most critical change in the update is that players now allow players to trade five Covert (Red) quality skins to acquire a knife or glove from the same collection. Five StatTrak Covert skins can be converted into one StatTrak knife or glove. Similarly, five regular Covert skins can be converted into one regular knife or glove item.

This new system eliminates the extremely low chance of opening cases or having to purchase them directly from the Steam Community Market, which had previously been the only way to obtain knives. Players can now use rare but more accessible Covert items, making the path to the most valuable items much more accessible.

Immediately after the change, prices for knives and gloves began to plummet, while the value of some Covert skins skyrocketed. For example, the price of an $18,000 knife reportedly plummeted to $7,000.

This drastic change resulted in the loss of approximately $1.75 billion in value from the massive $7 billion CS2 skin market. Some market analysts estimate this loss to be between $1 billion and $2 billion.