CS2 float value explained: what new traders need to know
Every CS2 skin carries a hidden 0.000–1.000 number that controls how worn it looks — and how much it sells for. Here is the plain-English version of what float is, why FN/MW costs more than BS, and when you should actually care.
If you have ever opened a CS2 marketplace and seen the same skin listed at €14, €19, and €46 with no obvious reason, the answer is almost always float value. Float is the hidden number every CS2 skin carries from the moment it is unboxed, and it determines two things: how the texture looks on the model, and how much the market is willing to pay.
This article is the version we wish we had when we started flipping. No marketing fluff, no clickbait — just the mental model and the few thresholds that actually matter for trades.
What float value actually is
Every CS2 skin is assigned a 32-bit floating-point number between0.000 and 1.000 when it drops or is unboxed. That number is the input to the shader that controls how the camo wears down on the model. Lower number = crisper paint, less scratches. Higher number = more grime, exposed metal, dull colours.
Valve mapped that continuous float onto five named buckets so the community has shared vocabulary:
| Wear | Float range | Short code |
|---|---|---|
| Factory New | 0.00 — 0.07 | FN |
| Minimal Wear | 0.07 — 0.15 | MW |
| Field-Tested | 0.15 — 0.38 | FT |
| Well-Worn | 0.38 — 0.45 | WW |
| Battle-Scarred | 0.45 — 1.00 | BS |
Important: those bucket boundaries are the same across every skin in the game, but the visual difference between, say, FN and FT is very skin-specific. On AK-47 | Redline the FT looks almost identical to FN. On AWP | Asiimov the FT is the “clean” one and FN barely exists. We will get back to that.
Why float drives price
Three independent pressures push the price up as float drops:
- Scarcity. Inside any wear bucket, low floats are rarer. Specifically, drops are skewed toward the centre of each bucket — a 0.00x FN is much rarer than a 0.06x FN even though both count as Factory New.
- Cosmetics. Low-float skins simply look better on the model and in inspection. Collectors and creators pay the premium.
- Future-proofing. A 0.001 AWP | Dragon Lore in FN will always be a 0.001. The supply does not grow with new drops the way mid-bucket floats do.
On most marketplaces the listing is shown alongside the exact float of that item. The cheapest FN listing in absolute price is almost never the lowest-float one in the bucket.
The float premium curve, in one sentence
Within a wear, price is a non-linear function of float that has steep cliffs at the bucket boundaries and curved decay inside the bucket. A 0.069 MW costs roughly the same as a 0.075 MW, but a 0.0699 MW costs much more than a 0.0701 FT.
That cliff happens because the wear label is a hard binary the marketplace uses. Anything 0.0001 above the boundary loses its Factory New badge and falls into the next pool. The market reacts accordingly.
When you should care about float
Honestly, not always. Here is the rough mental hierarchy:
- Tier 1: covert / classified knives and gloves. Float matters a lot. The market pays meaningful premiums even inside the same wear bucket, and the boundary cliffs are sharp.
- Tier 2: covert/classified weapon skins. Float matters at the boundaries. Inside the bucket the curve is shallow — a 0.10 MW and a 0.13 MW of an AK redline are often within 5%.
- Tier 3: mil-spec/restricted, anything sub-€5. Float barely matters. Spreads are dominated by listing fluctuations, not wear value.
- Pattern skins (Case Hardened, Fade, Marble Fade). Float matters less — pattern index dominates. A high-float but blue-gem Case Hardened is worth more than a low-float regular one. We’ll cover patterns in another article.
How SkinScope shows float
On any skin detail page you’ll see a float distribution chart that shows the price-vs-float curve for that specific skin, built from the actual listings we have scanned across CSFloat and the other native venues. The curve tells you instantly whether float matters for this skin or whether you should focus on listing price alone.
Try it on AWP | Asiimov (Field-Tested): the curve is almost flat, meaning a FT “1st percentile” and a FT “99th percentile” float trade for nearly the same money. Then compare to AK-47 | Asiimov (Field-Tested): steeper curve, lower-float listings command a real premium.
The two-minute rule
Before any flip, look at the float of the listing you are about to buy and check two questions:
- Is it within 0.005 of a wear boundary? If yes, you are paying for cliff risk. Make sure the premium is justified.
- Is the float in the top decile of the wear bucket? If yes, you have the option to relist at a meaningful premium. If not, plan to exit through volume venues like Skinport rather than float-aware ones like CSFloat.
Float is the single most-misunderstood mechanic in CS2 trading. It is also one of the easiest ways to spot a fair deal once you have the model in your head. Next time you open the scanner, look at the float column before the price column — half of the non-obvious arbitrage is hiding in that mismatch.