In CS2, every skin comes with a rarity color. It’s basically Valve’s “tier system” for how often a skin appears and how valuable it can become on the market.
If you’re trying to understand why some skins cost a few cents and others cost more than your GPU, rarity colors are step one.
Important: Valve didn’t change the color list in CS2… but CS2 made the top tiers (purple and red) feel way more “special” in practice.
The most common tier
Usually comes from map collections
You’ll see these a lot in weekly drops
Great for beginners, not great for profit
Still common
Mostly from collections
These are the “I got a drop” skins you’ll see constantly
The first tier that feels “real”
Core tier for both cases and contracts
Many popular budget skins live here
Rare enough to feel exciting
In CS2, purple became a big deal because it’s often the highest tier you can realistically get from normal play/collection drops
Also important trade-up material
Very rare
Most commonly from cases or trade-ups
Usually where “premium” skins start
Super rare
“Endgame” skins
In CS2, reds from collections feel especially scarce (and that affects pricing)
Knives and gloves
Case-only
The jackpot tier
White: “free drop filler”
Light Blue: “solid skins / budget favorites”
Blue: “rare and hype”
Purple: “premium”
Red: “endgame / collectors”
Gold: “jackpot”
When people search free cs2 skins, they usually mean legit skins you can get without paying. In CS2 that typically means:
Weekly drops from playing (most often white/blue, sometimes blue)
Occasional case drops (a case is not a skin, but it can be sold/traded)
So yes, you can get some “free CS2 skins” through gameplay — but the super expensive tiers are still rare by design.