How the weekly CS:GO drop system works?

How the weekly CS:GO drop system works?

Introduction

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the most popular online games on the modern market. It is the flagship title of the Valve company, and thousands of players enjoy playing as either terrorists or counter-terrorists every day. The game itself is free to play, but it provides Valve with tons of money. According to statistics, Valve earns more than $50 million per month just from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and the estimated monthly player count ranges from 500,000 to 750,000 players, with peak active hours reaching more than one million players being active at once. However, the money in this game is generated thanks to various cosmetics. Players open more than 25 million cases per month, and a single key to unlock a chest costs $2.50. Simple math shows that just from selling keys, Valve earns more than $50 million dollars per month. The number does not even touch the Steam market, where people constantly sell or buy weapons skins, stickers, etc., and each transaction provides Valve with a small amount of money.

Valve makes use of this by implementing CS:GO Weekly Drops. If you are a player who enjoys CS:GO, then you have probably received at least a few rewards after the end of your matches. These drops consist of skins, cases, or graffiti. In this article, we will describe how the CS:GO drop system works and why it is so crucial for this game.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/730/CounterStrike_Global_Offensive/

What are CS:GO Weekly Drops?

CS:GO Weekly Drops are simply drops of skins, cases, or graffiti that you can obtain while playing the game. CSGO Skins and graffiti can be obtained by leveling your account; each time you gain a new level, you may get a skin or graffiti for your collection. Cases, on the other hand, can only be obtained once or twice per week after completing a match. It should be noted that these drops contain only a specific set of skins and cases from the "Active Drop Pool," which changes every time a new case is added to the game.

These weekly drops are important for both players and Valve. Firstly, players can gain a relatively large collection of skins and cases for free. There is also a relatively large group of players who simply sell these skins and cases on the market to gain additional money, which they can later use to buy various products on Steam. Valve, on the other hand, makes money thanks to this system. Some players may find skins interesting enough to purchase keys to unlock the chest.

Furthermore, each skin, case, etc. sold on the Steam market also generates revenue for the company. Overall, CS:GO Weekly Drops are a great way for players to get free skins and cases, while also providing Valve with additional revenue. It is a win-win situation for both parties and one of the main reasons why CS:GO is so popular.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK6Ox233rds&ab_channel=oteek

Currently the skin pool consists of:

  • The 2018 Inferno Collection
  • The 2018 Nuke Collection
  • The Dust 2 Collection
  • The Train Collection
  • The Safehouse Collection
  • The Italy Collection
  • The Bank Collection
  • The Lake Collection

The current normal prime case drops are:

  • Revolution Case
  • Recoil Case
  • Dreams & Nightmares Case
  • Snakebite Case
  • Fracture Case

Furthermore, players have around 1% chance (based on player stats) to also drop older cases:

  • Prisma 2 Case
  • CS20 Case
  • Prisma Case
  • Danger Zone Case
  • Horizon Case
  • Clutch Case
  • Spectrum 2 Case
  • Operation Hydra Case
  • Spectrum Case
  • Glove Case
  • Gamma 2 Case
  • Gamma Case
  • Chroma 3 Case
  • Operation Wildfire Case
  • Revolver Case
  • Shadow Case
  • Falchion Case
  • Chroma 2 Case
  • Chroma Case
  • Operation Vanguard Case
  • Operation Breakout Weapon Case
  • Huntsman Weapon Case
  • Operation Phoenix Weapon Case
  • CS:GO Weapon Case 3
  • Winter Offensive Weapon Case
  • CS:GO Weapon Case 2
  • Operation Bravo Case
  • CS:GO Weapon Case
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/csgo/comments/g2bm6m/weird_ingame_drops/

Can you receive a drop if you are not a prime player?

In the context of weekly drops, this is probably the most often-asked question. Unfortunately, it was changed with the CS:GO update from June 3, 2021, titled "Adjustments to Non-Prime". Non-Prime drops have been discounted since then. Players might have different opinions about this but the fact is, if you are free to play, then you cannot get any drops.

How does the CS:GO Weekly Drops work?

Most players, especially those who have just started their career in CS:GO, are really interested in how the CS:GO Weekly Drops system works. Luckily, it is not as complicated as you might think. In general, once a week, after you level up your rank in CS:GO the game will reward you with a random item from the current pool, which can be a weapon, graffiti, or case. You will receive the drop after you finish the match, regardless of the game mode. To level up, you need to collect 5,000 experience points, with the maximum you can reach per match is about 480 EXP. The interesting thing here are the cases; you can get a maximum of three cases per week. According to information provided by players, the first case in a week is relatively easy to get, while the additional two are considerably harder to obtain. Unfortunately, players were not able to accurately calculate the mathematical chances of getting a case drop. Still, there is a simple regularity which you should take into consideration. If you play constantly, then you are likely to get a considerable amount of drops, and at least one case per week. Furthermore, the drops are tiered; in other words, players can receive different drops depending on the amount of matches they have played. Players who play more tend to receive better rewards.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/csgo/comments/g2bm6m/weird_ingame_drops/

Remember that the CS:GO drop reset happens in the middle of the week. For EU players, it is Wednesday, while for NA players, it is Tuesday. You can get only one item from leveling up once a week and up to three drops from playing per week. In other words, if you receive the maximum number of drops in a target week and the reset will happen in a few hours (and you are only a few XP away from leveling up), then we strongly advise you to wait.

Most players are always counting on getting a random case drop from the Weekly Drops system. After all, if you are extremely lucky, a case that you dropped during playing might contain an incredibly rare skin for a knife. Furthermore, thanks to these cases, the CS:GO Steam market is so active.

Players constantly buy and sell cases or skins that they drop from them. It is incredible how profitable and important such a simple system can be.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0w2Sw-319g&ab_channel=ChronoYinger

There are different items you can obtain from CS:GO Weekly Drops

There is no denying that most players are interested in the monetary value of items that can be gained from CS:GO Weekly Drops. It is interesting to note that there is constant discussion about this topic on Steam, CS:GO forums, etc. People talk about it on Steam, CS:GO forums etc. Many players tend to point out that, while the idea might sound interesting at first glance, the drop rates are abysmally low and most skins, cases, and graffiti are worth less than a dollar. Hence, we decided to thoroughly cover this topic. We hope that, thanks to our explanation, all your doubts will disappear.

First, let's start with a description of the weapon quality system, which describes the rarity of gun skins assigned to them. These rarities are as follows:

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gracjanek90/inventory/

  • White (Common) – Consumer Grade, Base Grade.
  • Baby Blue (Uncommon) – Industrial Grade.
  • Navy Blue (Rare) – Mil-Spec, High Grade.
  • Purple (Mythical) – Restricted, Remarkable.
  • Hot Pink (Legendary) – Classified, Exotic.
  • Red (Ancient) – Covert, Extraordinary.
  • Gold (Exceedingly Rare) – Knife, Gloves.

It should be noted that White and Baby Blue skins do not appear in CS:GO cases. You can only get them as a reward after completing a match. In 2017, Valve was forced to publish official numbers for drops and cases, and these are as follows:

Weekly drops:

  • Blue – 100 items with 79,92% drop rate;
  • Purple – 20 items with 15,98% drop rate;
  • Pink – 4 items with 3,2% drop rare;

Cases:

  • Navy Blue (Rare) – 79.92%
  • Purple (Mythical) – 15.98%
  • Hot Pink (Legendary) – 3.2%
  • Red (Ancient) – 0.64%
  • Gold (Exceedingly Rare) – 0.26%

In other words, the chance of obtaining an expensive, rare item is extremely low. Nevertheless, simply by playing a game, one can obtain, for example, a Factory New SG 553 Integrale, which is worth more than $118.91 on the market.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/market/listings/730/SG%20553%20%7C%20Integrale%20%28Field-Tested%29

Examples of other skins include:

  • P250 Sand Dune ($0.03-$0.22 – the lowest price is for Battle-Scarred skin while highest for a Factory New skin);
  • AK-47 Safari Mesh ($0.15-$4);
  • P2000 Amber Fade ($5.33-13.60);
  • AUG Sweeper ($0.01-$0.04);
  • Gali AR Cold Fusion ($0.05-$0.30);
  • AWP Acheron ($0.88-$2.83);
  • MAG-7 Rust Coat ($0.01-$0.05);
  • Nova Mandrel ($0.01-$0.02);
  • P250 Facility Draft ($0.01-$0.03);
  • Negev Bulkhead ($0.06-$0.13);
  • AUG Random Access ($0.89-$4.22);
  • TEC-9 Remote Control ($1.68-$9.14);

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/market/listings/730/AWP%20%7C%20Acheron%20%28Field-Tested%29

Of course, these are only a few examples. Drops consist of hundreds of different skins, but in general, most of your drops are going to be worth less than $1. Still, even with such cheap skins, you can gain a regular, steady income. Furthermore, you should not forget that a few of these skins look really beautiful, even if they are cheap. Many players tend to agree that the MP7 Fade looks really beautiful, especially if you add stickers to it.

Graffiti sprays that can be obtained from CS:GO weekly drops are cheaper than skins and cases, and CS:GO players consider them to be a wasted drop.. Most of them are worth less than $0.10, while the most expensive, the Recoil AWP, is worth about $10.

Some people tend to wonder why some of the CS:GO weapons skins are so expensive. Well, first of all, some of the skins simply look beautiful, so people want to have them in their collection. However, the second most important reason is the fact that some of these skins are very rare. For example, collections of skins from various operations are very difficult to acquire after the operation, so the price is pushed up. However, the rarest skins are the ones which were removed from the game and are currently impossible to drop from any case. Hence, they can be worth thousands of dollars. A primary example might be M4A4 Howl, which costs more than $5000 due to the fact that the original artist issued a DMCA takedown of the skin. Hence, it is almost impossible to get it. Valve has reworked the skin and given it a unique “Contraband” quality, while also deleting it from the Huntsman Case. It should be noted that there are other skins that have been issued a DMCA takedown but have not received the same treatment, like M4A4 Griffin, which was reworked but is still available in the Vanguard Case, or AWP Doodle Lore, which has been deleted from the case and changed to AWP Duality.

Thanks to the CS:GO Weekly drops and the huge number of skins and cosmetics available in the game, the Steam Market for CS:GO is really impressive. Thousands of transactions are made every day. Remember, however, that these skins are purely cosmetic; they make no difference in the performance of any weapon in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Sometimes players tend to claim that some skins make weapons reload faster, etc., but such claims have always been proved to be false.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/market/listings/730/Chroma%203%20Case

CS:GO Weekly Drops summary

The main aim of this article was to provide you with all the necessary data connected to the CS:GO Weekly Drop system. We hope that the data provided in this text gives you all the information you need. In general, it is clear that the CS:GO Weekly Drop system is a very important aspect of the game. Not only are players constantly provided with new cosmetics, cases, and weapon skins, but it is also a great system that gives Valve additional revenue. Players constantly trade weapon skins, graffiti, cases, and keys. It is a self-sufficient system that works perfectly. Furthermore, while you are not going to make thousands of dollars from the CS:GO Weekly Drops, you can still make a significant amount of money thanks to these skins. You can utilize it to buy case keys or new skins, and if you are really lucky, you might even drop a rare pink skin. Factory New SG 553 Integrale would be perfect.