A Counter-Strike: Global Offensive weapon skin designer revealed how much money makers make when one of their cosmetic skins is accepted by Valve: "way more" than $40, 000 a pop.
Designer Chris "CLeGFX" Le said during a live stream yesterday that when community-made weapon skins for CS: GO were accepted and added into the game through Valve in the old days (circa CS: GO's 2012 release), creators would earn about $40, 000. Nowadays, The said, "You get way way way way way more than that. "
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Unfortunately, due to Valve's tight-lipped policies on monetization of skins, we don't know exactly how much skin designers are making these days. But we do know how the weapon skin economy works.
When a CS: GO skin is accepted by Valve, it is added to a skin crate with a handful of other community-made skin. These crates are randomly given to players at the end of games and will give players one random skin from the selection. The crates can be opened with a key that costs $2. 50. If a creator's skin is included in that crate, they get a cut from that key sale. Creators also get a cut from peer-to-peer sales of their dermal.
Valve does not disclose the percentage cut that creators get from either of these transactions and creators are not allowed to say how many of their skins have been sold. But we know it's enough to make a living off of if you can get at least one pores and skin accepted every year.
Votre alone has had five different skins added to CS: GO milk crates since 2015, netting him at least $200, 000 in just two years. He has made as well as submitted a lot more than 5 weapon skins though - he has 40 CS: GO templates on his Steam workshop page that haven't been picked up. At least not yet.
Another developer, Coridium, has been making weapon skins with regard to CS: GO