Rarest CS2 Skins
Every Contraband-tier skin in the game (1 total), the complete ★ Extraordinary pool (0 knife finishes + 94 glove finishes), and the most notorious pattern-rare individuals — covering the absolute scarcest items in the CS2 economy.
Contraband Skins — The Rarest Tier
Contraband is a unique rarity tier created retrospectively in July 2014 after Valve removed the M4A4 | Howl's original artwork under a DMCA takedown. The skin was reclassified from Covert to Contraband and removed from the active drop pool. Today, the Contraband list contains exactly one entry: M4A4 | Howl. Its supply is permanently fixed by the number of Howls unboxed before the reclassification, and decreases slowly as Steam Trade-Banned accounts forfeit theirs to Steam Support.
Current Steam Community Market pricing places the Factory New M4A4 | Howl above $8,000 and StatTrak™ FN above $20,000 — making it the de-facto "blue chip" of the CS2 economy. No other Contraband skin exists today, and Valve has stated no further Contraband reclassifications are planned.
★ Extraordinary — Knives
The Extraordinary tier covers all 0 knife finishes in the game, drawn from 0 distinct knife types: . Drop probability for any specific knife/finish/wear combination depends on which case is being opened — a case with a 19-knife rare-special pool gives any single knife/wear roughly a 1-in-15,000 unboxing chance.
The single highest-value knife pattern types historically include: Karambit | Case Hardened, M9 Bayonet | Marble Fade, Butterfly Knife | Fade, Karambit | Doppler Black Pearl, and Karambit | Lore. For the full enumeration of every knife finish organised by blade type, see the dedicated all knife skins page.
★ Extraordinary — Gloves
Glove finishes share the Extraordinary tier with knives but appear only in glove-pool cases (Operation Hydra, Glove Case, Clutch Case, Operation Broken Fang, Snakebite, Kilowatt, Gallery). There are 94 unique glove patterns across 8 glove types: Bloodhound Gloves, Broken Fang Gloves, Driver Gloves, Hand Wraps, Hydra Gloves, Moto Gloves, Specialist Gloves, Sport Gloves. Gloves have no StatTrak™ or Souvenir variants — every unit is a standard glove with only the finish and wear distinguishing it.
The highest-value glove finishes include Sport Gloves | Pandora's Box, Specialist Gloves | Crimson Kimono, Sport Gloves | Vice, and Driver Gloves | King Snake. For the complete catalogue of every glove finish with current Steam pricing, see all glove skins.
Pattern-Rare Individual Items
Beyond the rarity tier system, certain skin finishes contain a hidden 1-in-1,000 integer pattern seed that creates dramatic per-item visual variation. These are individual items, not asset classes — pricing is set by specialist communities and individual auctions rather than market median.
Famous pattern-rare individuals worth knowing about: AK-47 | Case Hardened (blue gem #387, #661, #321); Karambit | Doppler (Black Pearl, Phase 2, Ruby, Sapphire); Karambit | Fade (100% / 90% / 80% fade percentage); Karambit | Crimson Web (full-web seeds); M9 Bayonet | Case Hardened (blue gem patterns); AWP | Asiimov (sub-0.001 Factory New floats); Glock-18 | Fade (100% fade); Five-SeveN | Case Hardened (gold seeds); Bayonet | Crimson Web (full-web); USP-S | Stainless (Well-Worn patina patterns).
The AK-47 | Case Hardened "blue gem" #661 is the most famous of all — a near-100% blue front-and-back pattern that has traded for over $400,000 in private sales. Tracking these patterns requires specialist tools (CSFloat's pattern viewer, CSGOSkins.gg pattern index) rather than the standard market interface.
FAQ — Rarest CS2 Skins
What is the rarest CS2 skin?
The single rarest CS2 skin is the M4A4 | Howl — the game's only Contraband-tier finish. It was reclassified from Covert in 2014 after a DMCA takedown removed the original artwork. No new Howls have entered the game since, so its supply is permanently decreasing and the Factory New variant trades for $8,000+ on the Steam Community Market.
Are knives the rarest CS2 items?
Knives and gloves share the same statistical rarity tier — Extraordinary (★) — with an aggregate ~0.0256% drop rate from cases that contain them. Within that pool, drop probability is divided equally across every knife or glove in the case. A case with 19 knives spread across all wears means any single knife/wear combo is roughly a 1-in-15,000 unbox.
What are pattern-rare CS2 skins?
Some skins have a hidden pattern seed (a 1-in-1,000 integer assigned at drop time) that creates dramatic per-item visual variation. The most famous examples: blue-gem AK-47 | Case Hardened (seeds #661, #387, #321), Karambit | Doppler Phase 2 / Black Pearl, 100% Fade Karambit, Crimson Web full-web knives. Individual pattern-rare items can trade for 10–100× the median price of the same skin/wear.
How rare is the Karambit | Doppler?
Karambit | Doppler is in the Chroma Case rare-special pool, which contains 13 knife types across 4 finishes — meaning any specific Karambit | Doppler is roughly a 1-in-150,000 unbox at base. Phase rarity within Doppler adds another layer: Phase 1/2/3/4 are more common than Sapphire, Ruby, and Black Pearl. A Black Pearl Karambit | Doppler in Factory New is a sub-1-in-1,000,000 outcome from a Chroma Case opening.
See Also
All CS2 skins hub · best CS2 skins · most expensive skins · all knife skins · all glove skins.