Dota 2 skins analysis – The most expensive Dota 2 skins
Skins, skins, skins. And even more skins. Oh, whats that? You want more skins? Well lucky for you popular game developers can’t seem to stop pumping them out.
At the top of the ladder in regards to skin markets are the two esports giants – CS:GO and Dota 2. Both of these games have thriving and ever-growing skin economies with the value of some pixels rivaling that of many cars or even houses in some cases.
At the top of the ladder in regards to skin markets are the two esports giants – CS:GO and Dota 2. Both of these games have thriving and ever-growing skin economies with the value of some pixels rivaling that of many cars or even houses in some cases.
What is the most expensive Dota 2 skin ever?
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to those of you familiar with the Dota 2 skins scene that the most expensive skin ever sold was a courier (AKA, an in-game item delivery man).
It’s a record that was set way back in 2013 (if anyone knows of any more recent and more expensive skins please let us know as we can’t find any!).
The ‘Ethereal Flame Pink War Dog’ courier was sold for a whopping $38,000. But what could possibly warrant this kind of price tag? A Redditor explains –
“The War Dog is the most sought after courier type, ethereal flame is the most sought after effect, and the shade of pink is very sought after. This combination makes it extremely rare, and one of a kind.”
How many Dota 2 skins are there?
Oh boy… When I first looked at the list of weapons and skins for CS:GO, knowing I had to count them for this blog I thought to myself ‘well, this is going to be boring.’ And guess what, It was. I wouldn’t lie to you.
Now, when I got to this section… Knowing that there are over 100 different heroes on Dota 2, each with their own skin sets, individual items and arcana’s, different terrain packs, voice packs, wards, couriers, towers skins, gems, pins, cases and so on for ETERNITY. I knew I had my work cut out for me…
… So much work in fact that I simply didn’t do it (Sorry vicious LootBear bears, please don’t eat me). It’s safe to say that the number of individual purchasable in-game items for Dota 2 exceeds that of CS:GO by a LONG shot.
For any of you that wish to count for yourself and let us know, you can find a full comprehensive list of all Dota 2 items here –
https://dota2.gamepedia.com/Cosmetic_Item
How much is the in-game item economy worth in total?
I want to preface this final section of the blog post with the confession that exact stats on this is impossible to obtain. The information gathered is purely speculation from passionate members of the in-game skin community as a whole.
It has been estimated that the CS:GO skin economy is valued at around 500 million dollars alone. Bare in mind that this estimation is now a year or so old and was estimated based on stats and figures given by popular marketplaces at the time.
Take into consideration the size of Dota 2 in comparison to CS:GO, the addition of smaller games that have open skin markets (Rust etc), and the number we are looking at is EASILYover one billion USD (that’s $1,000,000,000). If you include games with closed-off marketplaces such as Apex Legends and Fortnite then that number sky-rockets even higher.
We currently live in a world where virtual items in games can be valued higher than your car or in some cases even more than your house. An entire market and economy has spawned around items with no value other than a gamer’s desire to own it. This economy has in turn led to businesses being created (such as LootBear) that provide jobs and security for people all over the globe.
Love them or hate them, skins and in-game items are here to stay and we at LootBear can’t wait to see what the future has in store.
We hope you found this article interesting. If you think we miscounted the CS:GO skins, or if you are brave enough to take on the task of counting the total number of Dota 2 skins in existence, please let us know!