Counterstrike made nearly a one billion dollars from loot boxes last year, 2023. Loot boxes are cases that players can purchase containing random items of different value. It is a controversial feature that some regulators liken to gambling.
Gamers are known to give out large sums of money for in-game items, especially in Counterstrike. In this particular game, a virtual weapon skin was sold for over fivve hundred thousand dollars last year. CS2 Case Tracker monitors the Counterstrike revenue and reported that the game brought in nine hundred eighty million in loot box and this is just for the “keys” alone.
Loot boxes are profitable for game studios. Gamers and regulators have been debating long enough whether they should promote an underage gambling.
While their mechanics vary from game to game, loot boxes still work generally the same. You buy a loot box using in-game currency or real game money. In return, it gives you a randomized reward. These rewards are typically just cosmetic, wherein a player is being given a new item of clothing or a new look for their gun. But this new item does not actually have any actual advantage in the game.
The United Kingdom Parliament published a gambling report found in 2020. This report says that around fifty-five thousand people have a gambling problem between ages 11 and 15 in the UK. The report recommends that loot boxes in video games should be reclassified as gambling, under the country’s 2005 Gambling Act.
Furthermore, a study from researchers at The University of York found that 71% of gamers played games containing purchasable loot boxes. But still, in the UK’s Gambling Commission has said that it cannot act on loot boxes because the Gambling Act does not cover the practice.
