Float Value Explained: How Wear Drives CS2 Skin Prices
Understand what the float value is, how it maps to wear conditions, and why two skins of the same name can differ in price by hundreds of dollars.
Every CS2 skin carries a hidden number that does more to set its price than almost anything else: the float value. If you only learn one valuation concept before you start trading, make it this one.
What the float value actually is
The float value is a number between 0 and 1 that describes how worn a skin looks.
0 is factory-fresh, pristine paint; 1 is heavily scratched and faded. Valve assigns
it the moment a skin is created and it never changes — the float is permanent and unique
to that specific item.
That single number is bucketed into the five wear conditions you see on the market:
| Condition | Float range |
|---|---|
| Factory New (FN) | 0.00 – 0.07 |
| Minimal Wear (MW) | 0.07 – 0.15 |
| Field-Tested (FT) | 0.15 – 0.38 |
| Well-Worn (WW) | 0.38 – 0.45 |
| Battle-Scarred (BS) | 0.45 – 1.00 |
Why two "identical" skins sell for very different prices
Two AK-47 Redlines can both be Field-Tested, yet one trades for noticeably more. The
reason is the float within the band. A 0.16 Field-Tested looks almost like Minimal
Wear, while a 0.37 is on the edge of Well-Worn. Buyers pay a premium for the cleaner
end of every band.
This creates two pricing effects worth memorizing:
- Edge floats command a premium. The lowest float in a condition (e.g. a
0.00xFactory New) is the most desirable and the most expensive. - Pattern-aware skins amplify it. On Fade or Marble Fade skins, a low float combined with a strong pattern can multiply value several times over.
Capped floats and "rare" extremes
Not every skin can reach every wear. Many skins have a float cap — a minimum and
maximum the paint can ever roll. For example, a skin capped at 0.06–0.80 can never
appear as a true 0.00 Factory New, which makes its lowest-float copies genuinely scarce.
Conversely, some skins that can hit 0.00 make near-zero floats a collector target.
When you see a price spike on a "0.0001 Factory New," that scarcity is exactly what you are paying for.
How to read float on Outplayed
On any item detail page, Outplayed surfaces the float value alongside the wear band so you can judge whether a listing is priced for its true position in the band — not just its condition label. A few habits that pay off:
- Compare float, not just condition. Sort listings by float, then by price, and look for clean floats that are mispriced relative to their neighbours.
- Watch the band edges. Skins near a condition boundary (e.g.
0.149MW) are often underpriced because sellers list at the "average" condition price. - Track float over time. Low-float copies of popular skins tend to appreciate faster than the average of their condition, because supply is genuinely fixed.
Common beginner mistakes
- Paying the FN premium without checking the float. A
0.069Factory New is technically FN but visually closer to Minimal Wear. Pay for what you can see. - Ignoring float caps. Assuming a skin "should" exist in Factory New when its cap forbids it leads to overpaying for the nearest available wear.
- Treating float as the only factor. Float matters most on solid-color and gradient finishes. On busy, pattern-heavy skins, the pattern index can matter just as much.
Key takeaways
- Float is a permanent
0–1wear score that buckets into five conditions. - Within a condition, lower float = cleaner look = higher price.
- Float caps make some low-float skins genuinely rare — and worth a premium.
- Always compare the float number, not just the condition label, before you buy.
Once float makes sense, the natural next step is understanding pattern index — the other hidden number that decides whether a skin is ordinary or a four-figure unicorn.