We are talking about one of the most loved and played esports in the world where, in addition to everyday players who have fun from their home, world tournaments are organized that generate millions in turnover.
Suffice to say, the winners of certain tournaments have prize pools of $1 million up for grabs, thus creating truly challenging competitions with professional players from all over the world.
Wondering where the best stores for trading CS:GO items are? Now there are many CS:GO stores on the market, but the best are tested over time by their reputation. In this article, we’ll see the best CSGO store to start trading CS:GO items.
Where to Buy CS:GO Items Online
The best marketplaces for CS:GO items by a mile are DMarket.com and Steam. Here’s a complete review for both sites.
DMarket.com
DMarket is an online in-game content selling and sharing service that allows players to sell, buy and trade in-game items. Game developers make money from transaction fees. The DMarket website and app were launched in 2017 and are maintained by DMarket Ltd, headquartered in Santa Monica (USA). The company also has offices in Kyiv (Ukraine) and London (UK).
Until August 2019, the platform functioned according to the marketplace model. It allowed gamers and developers of computer games to earn money by monetizing game items. Using technology developed by DMarket, developers could sell items to players, allowing them to sell and trade items with each other, earning from each of these transactions. This created an economy of virtual items. The platform allowed players to sell and exchange in-game items for real money.
In August 2019, DMarket redesigned a service that allows users to buy, sell or trade items from different games, create purchase orders even for items that have not yet been listed for sale, and instantly buy or trade items at the offered price.
For developers, the platform has implemented a pre-order system, allowing game items to be sold before the official release of the game.
With DMarket, it is possible to find a selection of the best-selling skins, weapons, and more from the most expensive to the most affordable. You can compare the price and other parameters, as well as see the skin applied to the weapon. Finally, DMarket is very reliable with an average Trustpilot rating of 4.6.
Pros of shopping with DMarket:
- many payment methods;
- a large assortment of in-game items;
- highly reliable and tested by millions of users over time.
You can go on and start shopping for CS:GO items.
Cons: we’ve not found one.
Steam
The Steam marketplace is an extension of the Steam Community. It lets gamers trade in-game items, trading cards, etc and transactions are done through the Steam Wallet.
Steam is a web platform for the distribution of digital content which, at the same time, performs the functions of managing digital copyrights, allows for multiplayer games and allows users to interact in the same way as a social network. Developed by Valve Corporation, Steam takes care of the automatic installation and updating of video games, giving users the option to start voice or text chats during the game.
Although initially designed only for Microsoft Windows, today there are complete versions of the platform for both OS X and Linux, while a non-complete version was developed and released for the PlayStation 3. The versions downloadable from the App Store (for iOS systems) and from the Google Play Store (for Android systems) allow you to buy games and exchange messages with other online users.
In the event that it is not possible to access the platform via the software developed by Valve, you can always access it via the online portal: even if you do not have all the features of the software available, you can still manage your account, interact with your contacts and check the games list.
Furthermore, many of the features of Steam can also be implemented in other gaming platforms thanks to the application programming interface (API) called Steamworks, available free of charge for all developers.
In September 2014 (latest data available), there were more than 3,700 games on Steam, while registered users have well exceeded the 100 million mark. The peak of players connected to the Steam servers at the same time was reached in June 2014, when about nine million gamers were online on the Valve platform.
On Steam, players can trade all the CS:GO items they can think of — the marketplace has more than 310,000 listings. You can buy and sell these items for Steam credit. Weapon cases are the most commonly available items on Steam. One of the most popular CS:GO items on the Steam platform is the CS:GO Weapon Case 1.
Pros of shopping on Steam:
- it’s the largest gaming store;
- a lot of community features;
- allows users to buy and sell with no hassle.
Now you have a reason to shop from Steam.
And here are the downsides of Steam:
- it bans a lot of users;
- you can’t trade with some accounts;
- you can’t withdraw money.
Conclusion
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is not just a video game, but a large showcase of skins and cosmetics of all kinds that collectors are snapping up. We’ve shown you some of the most popular places without going to a CS:GO store. DMarket is one of the best-known and most active sites in terms of case opening. A lot of skins have been purchased on DMarket and this site works closely with CS:GO organizers. Meanwhile, what we like about Steam is it being the largest gaming store online. It’s the Amazon of the gaming industry, and it also lets users trade CS:GO items.