Three kinds of the same skin
A single skin can exist in up to three kinds:
- Regular. The standard version. The name is just the weapon and the finish, for example AK-47 | Redline.
- StatTrak™. The same look plus a kill counter. The name starts with StatTrak™.
- Souvenir. The same look plus stickers from a tournament. The name starts with Souvenir.
The finish, float range and exteriors are the same for all three. What differs is the extra feature, and where the item comes from. The kinds can't be combined: there is no StatTrak™ Souvenir item.
How StatTrak™ works
A StatTrak™ weapon has a small digital counter that shows how many kills its owner has made with it. On guns, the counter is part of the weapon model, so you see it in first-person view. The number is also shown in the item's description.
A few details:
- The counter only goes up. It doesn't affect float, pattern or how the weapon works.
- It counts kills made by the item's owner.
- A skin can't be turned into StatTrak™ later. Either the copy was created as StatTrak™, or it wasn't.
Where StatTrak™ comes from
StatTrak™ versions exist for weapon skins from weapon cases: the case can give either a regular or a StatTrak™ copy. Gun skins from weapon cases have one, such as the AK-47 | Asiimov or the USP-S | Printstream. Knives from cases, like the Karambit | Fade, also come in StatTrak™ versions.
Skins that reach players in other ways usually don't. For example, these have no StatTrak™ version:
- the AWP | Dragon Lore, from souvenir packages;
- the Desert Eagle | Blaze and the Glock-18 | Fade, from collections without a weapon case;
- the Glock-18 | Gamma Doppler and the Negev | Mjölnir, for the same reason.
Gloves never have StatTrak™ versions, even though they come from cases. The Sport Gloves | Vice and every other pair exist only as regular items.
How Souvenir works
Souvenir items come from souvenir packages tied to tournaments. Each package belongs to a specific event and map, and the items inside carry stickers from that event, typically the tournament logo and the teams that played. The stickers are part of the item and change its look.
A clear example is the AWP | Dragon Lore. It belongs to The Cobblestone Collection, and it was found in ten Cobblestone souvenir packages, from the ESL One Cologne 2014 Cobblestone Souvenir Package to the Boston 2018 Cobblestone Souvenir Package. So it exists as a regular or a Souvenir item, but never as StatTrak™.
Knives and gloves don't come in Souvenir versions.
How to tell them apart
- Read the name. StatTrak™ and Souvenir items have the word at the start.
- Look at the model. A StatTrak™ gun has a counter; a Souvenir item has event stickers.
- Check the skin page. The details on each skin page list its exteriors and versions, so you can see which ones exist before searching for a specific copy.
Read the two lists together. Take the Karambit | Fade: it has two exteriors, Factory New and Minimal Wear, and each of them exists as a regular and a StatTrak™ item. The Sport Gloves | Vice, on the other hand, have five exteriors but only one version, the regular one.
Which one to choose
It's a matter of taste. StatTrak™ suits you if you like seeing your kill count grow. Souvenir suits you if the tournament history and stickers appeal to you. If you want a clean look without extras, the regular version is the simplest. The finish itself is identical, so you can compare looks using the float guide and the exteriors guide, and read about sources in the cases and collections guide.