CS:GO Case Unboxings

About

CS:GO Case Unboxings are unboxing videos in which a person, typically a player of the Valve FPS Counter-Strike Global Offensive, unboxes a series of in-game weapon cases in a bid to acquire one or more items which have a very high resale value (typically over $50 USD).

Origin

On August 13, 2013, Valve released the Arms Deal update to CS:GO which introduced the first wave of Weapon Cases to the game.^[1] Since their introduction various YouTubers and Twitch streamers have uploaded and broadcast their unboxings.

Online Presence

On YouTube there are over 360,000 search results for "CS GO Case"^[2], and over 320,000 results for "CS GO Knife"^[3]. On August 14, 2013, YouTuber TheWarOwl, uploaded a video in which he describes the Arms Deal update, and the effects that it will have on Counter-Strike in the future.

On April 6, 2014, YouTuber Anomaly uploaded his reaction to unboxing an in-game knife (shown below left). He would later upload many clips of him unboxing several different knives and guns, the most popular of which has over 3 million views (shown below right).

On October 5, 2014, YouTuber MrMevil uploaded a video in which he unboxes a Bayonet Fade, one of the most expensive items available in the game. As of May 2015 the video has over 1.5 million views. On January 1, 2015, YouTuber PhantomL0rd uploaded a video in which he uses the Trade Up Contract aspect of the games in a bid to get a one of the rarest gun skins, the AWP Dragon Lore. As of May 2015 the video has nearly 2 million views.

YouTuber ImmortalHD regularly streams his unboxings on Twitch, and uploads them to YouTube. In several of his videos he adds a comedic element to his unboxings, such as eating foul tasting foods (shown below left). As of May 2015 his most viewed unboxing video has over 1 million views (shown below right).

On December 1, 2014, YouTuber Kootra uploaded the first video in his "December Daily Dozen" series in which he does a series of unboxes every day for the month of December (shown below left). On December 31, 2014, Kootra uploaded the finale to his series in which he finally gets the item he had been seeking (shown below right). Due to fact that the item was unboxed on the last case of the series, many in the video's comments suspected that the event had been rigged. The series gained enough attention that a thread was created to discuss it on the CS:GO subreddit.^[4]

During Kootra's month long series YouTuber DanzNews uploaded a clip of Kootra unboxing a knife after which Kootra experiences an emotional melt down (shown below). The video quickly became the most viewed video on DanzNewz's channel with over 800,000 views.

There are several sites which feature a CS:GO case simulator for those who do not wish to spend money on real in-game cases. The most notable among these are the simulators featured on Convars,^[5] goAggro,^[6] and Scratch.^[7] There are also several simulators available on both the Apple App Store,^[8] as on the Google Play store.^[9][10]

Search Interest

External References