Someone paid $100,000+ for a CS:GO skin, the most expensive skin purchase in history

One of the biggest driving forces behind the success and popularity of CS:GO is most definitely the game's skin market.

Following the introduction of the Arms Deal update in August 2013, skins formed a virtual economy due to their rarity and other high-value factors that influenced their desirability.

This soon led to skin gambling and some really big affairs around it. The biggest scandal was the one which included Trevor "TmarTn" Martin and ProSyndicate, owners of CSGOLotto.

CS:GO skin gambling is definitely a dark part of CS:GO history (Picture: Valve)

Despite some questionable ethical issues behind the CS:GO skin market, and even some legal grey areas, this important part of the CS:GO community continues to thrive to this day, and it is even one of the biggest reasons why we still don't have the CS:GO Source 2 Update.

Most of the trades in this economy are being done with Steam money, which can not be pulled out from this closed system, but that doesn't mean that people won't spend astronomical sums of real money just to have some of the exotic and rare skins they desire.

• Read more: How to access CS:GO Beta Depot and test out updates

We've heard stories before that some people were paying tens of thousands of dollars for some rare skins, but this latest sale is absolutely insane.

As reported by ohnePixel, who's known as someone well informed about the CS:GO economy, earlier this month a Chinese collector purchased StatTrak M4A4 | Howl 4x IBP 0.003 for $100,000+ in cash, which means that is was a non-Steam transaction.

According to ohnePixel, if this amount turns out to be true, it sets the new record as the biggest cash trade in CS:GO history.

The first reported amount was $130,000, but he later clarified that $130,000 is the sum for which Chinese buyer would sell it for, and he bought it for around $100k, which still makes it a record for a skin purchase.

This StatTrak M4A4 | Howl is apparently this most expensive CS:GO skin in history (Picture: Valve)

It looks like the Chinese market is really into this and rich Chinese gamers are willing to spend an insane amount of money for things like CS:GO skins.

Twitter user xMercy, who says he is a CS:GO collector, shared information that a Chinese collector bought over $700.000 worth of "extremely high-tier items", including paying $65,000 for the Souvenir Dragon Lore.

Of course, you should take all this information with a grain of salt, since these are all second-hand reports from people who are generally into this market as well, and probably have at least some interest to share this kind of stories and create narratives about extremely expensive trades.

• Read more: CS:GO Trusted Mode: How to disable and what it is

Yet, there is no doubt that people are willing to pay insane amounts of money for skins in video games, especially people who are rich collectors, so we wouldn't be surprised if all these stories are 100% true.

Are you spending money on skins in video games? And if yes, how much?