What would you spend half a million dollars on? A house deposit? A boat? A fancy luxury car? A skin for your digital gun in a video game?
Well, one gamer who apparently has too much money ignored all of the former options and opted for the latter.
Yep, the anonymous Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player dropped a cool USD$500,000 (£403,825, AUD$744,546) on a bundle deal that included a rank one AK-47 ‘661’ pattern ST MW with 4x Titan Holos and a Karambit ‘387’ pattern blue gem in the 'well worn' condition.
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Translation: a digital gun and a digital knife for use in the game.
Oh, and if you weren't aware, a skin is basically the pattern or aesthetic of something in a game.
Sort of like the cover you choose for your mobile phone, except in a video game.
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Anyway, the 'gun' set the player back USD$400,000 (£323,060, AUD$595,636) and the knife was an additional USD$100,000 (£80,765, AUD$148,909).
For those of you out there who are familiar with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skins, it is the same knife as the Karambit, which is known around town as the most expensive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin in existence.
The only difference is the condition of the item.
The USD$100,000 knife is in a 'well worn' condition, rather than the 'factory new' condition with the USD$1.5 million (£1,211,475, AUD$2,233,638) price tag.
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Prominent Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin trader ‘zipeL’ acted as the broker in the exchange.
He took to Twitter to alert his followers and fellow gamers that he had helped secure the second-largest trade deal in the history of the game.
He tweeted: "I just completed the second largest trade in Counter-Strike history! Sold these two on behalf of [fellow player] Luksusbums."
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"The combined sale was [over] USD$500,000."
The identity of the player who bought the skins is unknown, but some gaming sites like Dextero seem to believe it may be a Chinese collector who also owns a Souvenir AWP Dragon Lore skin worth over USD$100,000.
So why was a fake weapon so damned expensive? Well, not only is it one of the rarest skins in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but it also features one of the most coveted sticker combinations in the entire game.
The digital AK-47 features a 661 pattern, which means it boasts a 'rank one' blue gem pattern.
So, basically, it has the most blue in it.
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It was also covered in four Titan Holo stickers from the Katowice 2014 collection.
Yep. We can hear you ooh-ing and ahh-ing from here.
Since Counter-Strike's Arms Deal update back in August 2013, weapon skins have become a key part of the experience of the game.
They are purely for aesthetics and provide no competitive or tactical advantage for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players.
But, as we've now seen, the rare ones are considered collector's items.
And gamers are willing to pay top-dollar for them.
After all, why buy a house - something tangible that could appreciate in value - when you could buy a little bit of specific code for use only on a certain video game?
We know what we'd choose.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 2 will be released in 'summer 2023' as per The LoadOut. The game will be a free upgrade for all owners of the previous version.
Featured Image Credit: Counter Strike. Twitter/@zipelCSTopics: Gaming, Money, Technology
