Valve is making ridiculous money on CS2 cases. Thanks to them and Steam, the company doesn't have to care about fast pace of game development
Counter-Strike 2 players continue to eagerly open cases, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue for Valve in March alone.
Steam and Counter-Strike 2 are the pillars of Valve's power, thanks to which Gabe Newell's company doesn't have to worry about the future. In March alone, CS players opened 32 million loot boxes, the most in over 9 months (over 34 million from March 8 to April 8, via CS2 Case Tracker).
It's no secret that Counter-Strike is the undisputed king of Steam. Valve's shooter never reached the record results of PUBG or Black Myth Wukong, but in the end, this series remains in first place in both Steam rankings most of the time.
(Unfortunately), loot boxes are also part of CS - cases opened with keys purchased in the game store (less often: at the Steam Community Market) or websites dealing with trading players' virtual assets. The keys cost 2.5 dollars (sometimes more on the Community Market), and Valve charges a 15% commission on each transaction (including key purchases), resulting in over 82 million dollars in March alone just from keys.
There is no need to specifically state that the number of cases opened since their inception in CSGO reaches billions. This is also supplemented by the markets for Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2, and importantly, the profits from selling skins and items on the Community Market. Moreover, March 2025 is by no means a historical record for CS. A year ago, more than 38 million loot boxes were opened in just one month.
Not all players are thrilled about this. Just as TF2 is sometimes called a "hat simulator," some players sarcastically suggest that Valve should change the title of Counter-Strike 2 to something more fitting, like "Cosmetic Skins 2."
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg that represents the entirety of Steam. In 2024, the platform brought Valve an estimated revenue of 10.8 billion dollars (via Half-Life.
