What Is the AK-47 | Wild Lotus?
Wild Lotus is a Covert-rarity AK-47 finish from The St. Marc Collection, a floral-themed set of 18 skins that arrived on November 18, 2019 as part of Operation Shattered Web. Where most AK finishes lean into camo or graphic-print styles, Wild Lotus goes full fine-art: intricate painted lotus blooms and leaves wrap the receiver in warm reds, greens, and gold, closer to a piece of porcelain than a rifle wrap. It's widely considered one of the most beautiful skins Valve has ever shipped, and its design alone would make it desirable even without the rarity.
A few key facts set it apart from a normal Covert:
It was never in a weapon case, so you can't unbox it with a key.
It only ever dropped during Operation Shattered Web, which ended in 2020.
It has no StatTrak and no Souvenir version, unlike most case Coverts.
If you want to see how it stacks up against other AK finishes, our AK-47 skins tier list ranks the whole lineup, and it also features in our roundup of the rarest CS2 skins.
Why Is the AK-47 Wild Lotus So Expensive?
The short answer: it's stunning, it's genuinely scarce, and there's almost no way to make new ones. A Factory New copy sits at around $14,830 on our catalog, and even a beat-up Battle-Scarred runs roughly $4,250 as of 2026.
| Wear | Price (approx.) |
|---|---|
| Factory New | ~$14,830 |
| Field-Tested | ~$7,820 |
| Well-Worn | ~$5,470 |
| Battle-Scarred | ~$4,250 |
Three things drive that price:
Tiny supply. Estimates put the total under 3,000 copies across all wears, a rounding error next to a normal case skin that has hundreds of thousands in circulation.
No new source. Because it was an operation drop and never entered a case, no key can unbox one. New copies only appear through an expensive trade-up (more below), so the population barely grows.
Wear scarcity. The drop pool skewed toward higher floats, so most surviving copies are Well-Worn or Battle-Scarred. Clean Factory New examples are extraordinarily rare, which is why the Factory-New-to-Battle-Scarred gap here is one of the widest of any AK.
Stack the fine-art design on top of that and you get a skin whose price has snowballed: from roughly $1,500 at its 2019 release to around $4,000 by 2022, and into five figures for Factory New today. The climb tracks a simple dynamic, fixed supply meeting slowly growing collector demand, which is the same pattern behind most blue-chip CS2 skins. For where it sits among the priciest skins overall, see our guide to the most expensive CS2 skins.
How Do You Get an AK-47 | Wild Lotus?
There are only two realistic paths in 2026, and neither is cheap.
Buy it outright. The simplest route is to purchase one directly, for example the AK-47 | Wild Lotus (Factory New) or a cheaper worn copy, on the market. You see exactly what you're paying for, which matters at these prices.
Trade up for one. Wild Lotus is the only Covert in the St. Marc Collection, and its only Classified is the MP9 | Wild Lily. That means a Trade Up Contract using ten St. Marc Classified skins is guaranteed to output a Wild Lotus, since there's no other Covert it could roll. In practice this is rarely cheaper than buying, because the Classified inputs are themselves scarce and pricey, and the output float is random.
The original path, unboxing it from Operation Shattered Web drops, closed when the operation ended in 2020. No active operation or case drops Wild Lotus anymore, which is exactly why the market and the trade-up are the only ways in.
How Many AK-47 Wild Lotus Skins Exist?
Nobody has an exact figure, since Valve doesn't publish drop counts, but community tracking estimates fewer than 3,000 copies total across every wear. Factory New is the rarest slice of that already-tiny pool, with most copies landing in the Well-Worn and Battle-Scarred range. That combination, a hard supply cap plus a lopsided wear distribution, is what makes even a rough Battle-Scarred Wild Lotus a four-figure skin. For collectors it's a genuine store of value; if that's your angle, our CS2 skins investment guide covers what tends to hold value over time.
How Does the Wild Lotus Compare to Other Expensive AK-47 Skins?
The Wild Lotus isn't just an expensive AK, it's in a league of its own among standard finishes. To put the price in context, here's how a Factory New Wild Lotus stacks up against the other AK-47 skins collectors chase:
| AK-47 Skin | Factory New (approx.) |
|---|---|
| Wild Lotus | ~$14,830 |
| Hydroponic | ~$5,930 |
| X-Ray | ~$2,990 |
| Gold Arabesque | ~$2,920 |
| Fire Serpent | ~$2,520 |
Even the legendary Fire Serpent, the skin most people name first when asked about expensive AKs, costs roughly a fifth of a Factory New Wild Lotus. The one AK that truly eclipses it is the Case Hardened "blue gem" #661, nicknamed "the Scar": a Factory New StatTrak copy famously sold for around $1 million, a record no other AK-47 has come near. But that's a single legendary pattern seed rather than a finish you can simply go and buy, so as a standard, purchasable skin the Wild Lotus is comfortably the most expensive AK-47 in CS2.
What Should You Check Before Buying a Wild Lotus?
At five figures, due diligence matters more than on a $20 skin. A few things worth doing before you commit:
Match the wear to your budget. A Battle-Scarred copy at roughly $4,250 gets you the same artwork for a fraction of a Factory New. The lotus design holds up well even at high float, so a worn copy is the sensible entry point unless you specifically want a pristine one.
Factor in stickers. Applied stickers can add value (rare tournament holos) or subtract it (common stickers that a buyer would want to scrape). Check what's on the model before comparing prices.
Expect low liquidity. With so few copies, only a handful are listed at any moment, so the "market price" swings on individual sales. Be patient and don't overpay just because one listing is high.
Buy from a trusted source. For a purchase this size, use an established marketplace over a random private trade. Our guide on what to look at when buying CS2 skins covers the checks that matter.
FAQ
Does the AK-47 Wild Lotus have StatTrak or Souvenir versions?
No. The Wild Lotus exists only as a standard, non-StatTrak skin, and there is no Souvenir variant. That's normal for a collection drop rather than a case skin, and it means every copy on the market is the same base version, which keeps demand concentrated on a single pool.
Is the Wild Lotus the most expensive AK-47 skin in CS2?
As a standard finish, yes. A Factory New Wild Lotus trades well above other grail AKs like Hydroponic, X-Ray, Gold Arabesque, and Fire Serpent. The only AK-47s that can top it are special one-offs: a high-tier Case Hardened "blue gem" or a Wild Lotus itself wearing rare Katowice 2014 stickers.
Will the AK-47 Wild Lotus keep going up in price?
Nobody can promise that, but the fundamentals that drove the climb, a hard supply cap and no new source, haven't changed. Historically it has trended up, though five-figure skins move in big, uneven steps and can stall for long stretches. Treat it as a long-term collector's grail, not a quick flip.
What's the cheapest way to own an AK-47 Wild Lotus?
A Battle-Scarred copy, at roughly $4,250, is the lowest-cost route into the actual skin, and the artwork barely suffers at high float. If that's still out of reach, a red AK-47 skin with a similar warm palette gets you a comparable look for a tiny fraction of the price.
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