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10 Most expensive in-game items ever
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00:00...are the 10 most expensive in-game items ever.
00:03Number 10.
00:04Javelin.
00:04Star Citizen.
00:05$2,500.
00:07Star Citizen's Javelins are one of the best examples of gamers trusting in the long-term
00:12investment model.
00:13While it certainly wasn't the first title to have in-game items double up as currency,
00:18the amount developers Cloud Imperium Games have been able to raise for a game still in
00:22development is staggering.
00:24The items that have made the biggest splash over the course of the game's lifetime have
00:27been Javelin Destroyer spaceships.
00:30According to Cloud Imperium, these 1,132-foot-long Javelin Destroyers come with four primary thrusters,
00:37private rooms for the captain and officer, a hefty hangar bay capable of housing a gunship,
00:4312 maneuvering thrusters, a heavily armored bridge, and a lifetime insurance warranty.
00:48Players were also told that these ships were battle-hardened, meaning they'd also have
00:53to fork out for the missing 20 gun turrets and two torpedo launchers.
00:57The end total needed to get one of these ships in working order?
01:00$2,500 real-world US dollars.
01:04Not that that stopped the game's investors, however.
01:07Within a minute of the auction going live, all 200 Javelins had been sold, raising over
01:12half a million dollars for Cloud Imperium Games.
01:15All of this in a game that still hasn't been released, even after a decade in development.
01:20Number 9. Blue Party Hat RuneScape $4,000
01:24Going from a juggernaut spaceship capable of conquering entire galaxies to something far
01:29more humble, RuneScape's famous Blue Party Hat once set a player back over $6,500.
01:36In 2001, developers Jagex decided to hold a special Christmas celebration in RuneScape,
01:42spreading the season of goodwill by dropping Christmas crackers to players, which, when pulled,
01:46would result in the winners getting items and the losers getting a consolation party hat.
01:52Despite all being a bit of fun that wasn't really worth more than a few pennies initially,
01:56ultimately, these party hats were discontinued and not obtainable after the celebration.
02:01The value of these hats subsequently began to soar,
02:05far eclipsing the maximum value allowed at the in-game Grand Exchange marketplace.
02:09Price estimates for the items still value the blue party hat at over $2 billion RuneScape
02:14Gold, with recorded sales roughly equating to over $4,000.
02:19And with no other hats being introduced since,
02:22it seems these incredibly rare items will only continue to rise in value over the coming years.
02:27Again, though, it's just a paper party hat.
02:30Number 8. Zuzo World of Warcraft $9,500
02:34World of Warcraft is the world's most popular MMORPG,
02:38home to some of the most dedicated gamers that the industry has ever seen.
02:42Back in 2007, one of these players took dedication to the game to a staggering new height,
02:47in a transaction that would see Blizzard clamp down on their character.
02:51Zuzo was a level 70 night elf rogue in WoW who managed to sell his character to a player called
02:57Shaxx for roughly €7,000, about $9,500 at the time.
03:02The justification for this life-changing amount of money was that this rogue came with the legendary
03:07twin blades of Azanoth, which could only be looted off Illidan Stormrage's corpse in the Black Temple.
03:13Zuzo then continued to play the game for years after the sale with a different rogue build.
03:18As for Shaxx, the character quickly disappeared from the game, with most assuming they'd probably
03:22been banned.
03:24Blizzard have always been firm on their policy of selling accounts being a big no-no,
03:28so it's safe to say this might not have been the smartest of investments from this not-so-slick buyer.
03:33Number 7. Burning Killer Exclusive, Team Fortress 2, $12,000
03:38The Killer Exclusive is an in-game cosmetic item for Team Fortress 2 made by its community.
03:44Named after the term for a juicy breaking news story, this item is a light beige fedora that
03:50can be worn by all classes, with a card saying Press sticking out the front.
03:54The item was initially just a promotional tie-in launch with PC Gamer, but soon found its way
03:59into the game as a cosmetic, with the flaming variant quickly becoming one of the rarest pieces
04:04of equipment on the market.
04:06The Burning Killer Exclusive stock continued to climb over the following years, eventually
04:10being sold via TF2's marketplace for 400 buds in 2014, a sum which, when converted, works
04:18out to around $12,000.
04:20The trade was made between a player known as Shadow and the buyer Gora, and became endemic
04:25of the impact community marketplaces can have on virtual items.
04:28It remains the highest value trade ever in the Team Fortress 2 community, and as a result,
04:33has become pretty famous, or infamous.
04:36Number 6. Echoing Fury Mace, Diablo 3, $15,000
04:40With the highest damage of any one-handed weapon, the Echoing Fury Mace's discovery in Diablo 3
04:47was a watershed moment in the game's history.
04:49Requiring a character level of 60 to drop, this infamous mace gained a reputation for
04:54exploiting a damage allocation bug, so naturally it was pretty sought after.
04:59With 1,166.2 to 1,433.8 damage per second, and 1.25 to 1.26 attacks per second, the Echoing
05:11Fury Mace is the ultimate DPS dealing machine.
05:14Following the 2.6.6 patch, the weapon gained a unique stacking element that increases attack
05:20speed and movement by 75%, 25% in total for every enemy killed, just in case it wasn't
05:27powerful enough.
05:28The original owner of the weapon famously sold the Echoing Fury Mace for a few thousand
05:32dollars to allegedly help pay their rent, but that didn't stop its stock from soaring
05:37in the years since.
05:38A bid of 40 billion in-game gold was later offered up for the weapon, which, when you
05:43work out the conversion, is about $15,000.
05:46Number 5.
05:47Dragon Slaying Saber Age of Wulin $16,000
05:50Snail's Age of Wulin slash Wushu launched in China in August of 2012, but shot to the
05:57gaming world's attention with an auction in China on Christmas Day of 2011.
06:01The auction was held for various digital in-game items that players would be able to use when
06:05the game launched.
06:07Various items were listed and commanded decent prices, with the likes of the Hook of Departure,
06:11of which there's only 10 in the game, and a lordly spear sheath, of which there's only
06:165, selling for 10,000 yuan, which is about $1,600 US dollars, and 18,300 yuan, which is
06:23about $2,500 US dollars, respectively.
06:26However, the biggest lot of the auction was a scabbard called the Dragon Slaying Saber,
06:30which ended up going for 100,000 yuan, which is about $16,000 US dollars.
06:36With the game still in beta at this point, it was an astonishing moment.
06:39But the promise of it being a one-of-a-kind item that would only have one owner in its
06:44lifespan managed to coax someone into burning a very big hole in their wallet.
06:48Number 4.
06:49Gold Magnate.
06:50EVE Online.
06:51$33,000.
06:52In January of 2020, YouTuber Scott Manley broke internet headlines everywhere when he lobbed
06:58a whopping $33,000 on a gold magnate in EVE Online, making it the most expensive ship
07:05sold in the game.
07:06One of the rarest ships, these powerful frigates have only ever popped up sporadically over
07:11the course of EVE's history, and have only been obtainable via in-game tournament rewards.
07:16The historic purchase actually came during CCP Games' Plex for Good campaign, which was
07:21an initiative run to help raise money for the Australian bushfire effort.
07:25The YouTuber purchased this gold magnate from user Kilon Darklights Auction, with a bid
07:29of 1,001,001 Plex.
07:33For reference, Plex is an in-game currency in EVE, with 1,000,000 Plex worth approximately
07:37$32,500 in real-world money.
07:40That 1,000,000 Plex is worth about 3.3 trillion ISK, the game's primary currency that most
07:47players deal in.
07:48Given the fact players start off with a ship worth around 5 million ISK, about 5 cents,
07:53that makes this sale worth about 170 years of time in-game.
07:58This $33,000 purchase certainly made a splash, but at least in the case of this particular
08:03transaction, it did some good outside the game too.
08:06Number 3.
08:07Ethereal Flames Pink War Dog, Dota 2, $38,000.
08:12In Valve's Dota 2, couriers are used to transport items to and from a base to players dotted across
08:17the map.
08:18Every player gets one, they're invulnerable when they're in their home fountain, and
08:22they basically get player for the gold passively throughout the match.
08:25It's safe to say couriers aren't the most jaw-dropping part of this MOBA, however that
08:29all changed in November of 2013, when it was revealed a player had forked out a whopping
08:34$38,000 for one of these trusty steeds.
08:37According to a player named Pardar, they sold their Ethereal Flames Pink War Dog to another
08:43user for that 5-figure sum.
08:45The War Dogs are already amongst the most powerful couriers in the game, and the Ethereal
08:49Flame effect is a striking visual.
08:52But where the value in the item really comes from is in its rarity.
08:55Allegedly, only 4 creatures of this kind existed in the game at the time, mainly due to Valve
09:00not having pink set as one of its primary 10 colors, on account of glitches that could
09:04occur with black skins.
09:06In turn, this made the rarity of the item skyrocket, and one user was there to capitalize.
09:11Number 2 Souvenir AWP Dragon Lore CSGO $61,000
09:17Valve's Counter-Strike Global Offensive has a whole array of weapon and item skins available
09:22from the Steam Marketplace.
09:24These in no way enhance someone's abilities in the game, but some of the designs have commanded
09:28a hefty price tag over the years.
09:30The most legendary is the Dragon Lore AWP, which was added to the game in 2014 as part of the
09:36Boston 2018 Cobblestone Souvenir package during Operation Breakout.
09:40There are 10 different cases that include the Dragon Lore that players can grab, but it does
09:45have one of the rarest drop rates in the game of just 0.64%.
09:49The striking design coupled with this rarity has contributed to Dragon Lore's price fluctuating
09:54from $2,700 to $8,600, depending on its attached quality stat.
10:01For one particular player, though, that wasn't sufficient.
10:04Following the release of the Souvenir package in the wake of the Boston Major, one player forked
10:08over a hefty $61,000 for the Souvenir version of this legendary sniper rifle.
10:14Number 1, Planet Calypso, Entropia Universe, $6,000,000.
10:20From its launch, MindArk emphasized that Entropia Universe would prioritize capitalism
10:25over gameplay.
10:26The game's open marketplace allows players to redeem the in-game Project Entropia dollar
10:31for US dollars at a fixed 10 to 1 exchange rate, which has led to some hefty investments
10:37into various in-game items.
10:39The game has seen in-game items such as a nest egg, holiday resort, and sections of a space
10:43station, all auctioned off for tens of thousands of dollars.
10:47However, the biggest investment of all was reserved for its very first piece of major
10:51content added, Planet Calypso.
10:54Having attracted over 950,000 registered accounts from over 200 countries, Planet Calypso acted
11:01as the centerpiece to Entropia's universe, which prompted a mind-boggling $6 million purchase
11:07from fellow developers C Virtual Worlds in 2011.
11:10The studio had planned to turn Calypso into a wacky tribute to Michael Jackson, where players
11:16could make donations to his various charities whilst remembering the King of Pop, but instead
11:21channeled that energy into the thankfully cancelled game, Planet Michael.
11:25Regardless, with $428 million sunk into the game over its lifespan, you can see where the
11:31developer's lofty valuation came from.
11:34That's the end of our list, but do let me know down in that comment section if you can
11:37think of any other entries for the most expensive in-game items ever.
11:42As always, I've been Jess from WhatCulture.
11:44Thank you so much for hanging out with me.
11:46If you like, you can come say hi to me on my Twitter account where I'm at JessMcDonnell,
11:50but make sure you stay tuned to us here for plenty more great gaming lists.
11:53Thanks.
11:54Thanks.
11:55Thanks.
11:56Thanks.
11:57Thanks.
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