S&Box Is Going Free to Play: What Happens to Your Skins?

On October 13, 2026, Garry Newman published “Rethinking” on the S&Box site, a candid post about a launch that had not gone the way Facepunch hoped. Most of the coverage focused on the game. This page focuses on what the announcement means if you own S&Box items, with what Facepunch actually said kept separate from what is still unknown and from our own analysis.

What Facepunch announced

Free to play

The post says Facepunch intends to make S&Box free to play toward the end of the year, and that free to play was always the long-term plan: “so fuck it, lets just do it now”. There is no date. Press coverage (PCGamesN, GamingOnLinux) repeats the same window and adds nothing firmer.

Exclusive items for people who paid

Everyone who has bought S&Box will automatically get “a bunch of exclusive steam inventory items”, and people who paid the original $20 price get extra ones on top of what $10 buyers receive. Facepunch has not named the items or said whether they will be tradable or marketable. That matters: tradable owner items would be a new block of supply arriving on the market at once, while untradable ones would be cosmetic only.

The Citizen is being removed

S&Box has had two player models: the cartoonish Citizen and a more realistic human. Facepunch is “fully removing the Citizen”, and the human becomes the default everywhere. Existing games built on the Citizen are meant to keep working. Facepunch has not said what happens to clothing that was designed for the Citizen, which covers a large part of the early item catalogue.

Play Fund and Workshop changes

The same post moves the Play Fund (which pays creators of popular games) to an apply-and-approve model and points S&Box toward Steam Workshop, starting with maps. These do not affect items directly, but they are part of the same reset.

How we got here: the S&Box price timeline

The player numbers explain the urgency. SteamCharts recorded an all-time peak of 4,709 concurrent players at launch and a May average of 1,788. Since August the average has been around 400. Steam reviews have stayed “Mixed”, at 47% positive in October.

What free to play could mean for skin prices

Everything in this section is analysis, not announced fact. Facepunch has said nothing about the item market itself.

More players means more potential buyers

A free game removes the main barrier to trying it, and every new player is someone who might want a hat. That is the bullish case. The launch is the warning against counting on it: release brought the biggest player wave S&Box has had, and item prices fell anyway. Across the 74 items we tracked from before launch, the median is down 82% (full data). Players and buyers are not the same thing.

More supply is likely too

S&Box gives every eligible player one free, tradable item a week through its reward system (Update 26.06.10). If free accounts can earn those rewards, a bigger player base also means more items flowing onto the market. Facepunch has said it watches the system for botting, but has not said whether free accounts will be eligible. Add the owner-exclusive items, if they turn out to be tradable, and supply could grow faster than demand.

The Citizen question

If some Citizen clothing looks wrong, or worse, on the human model, those items could lose value; if they are reworked well, nothing changes. We do not know which, and neither does anyone selling a “guaranteed” prediction. Check how your items look in-game after the change before you act on rumours.

What other games did

Two Valve games with big item economies went free to play: Team Fortress 2 in June 2011 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in December 2018. Both kept their item markets afterwards. They are not a useful price guide for S&Box, though: their markets were older, much larger, and built around different item systems.

What the market has done since the announcement

One tracker, sbox.trading, put the total market cap at $2.07M on October 12 and $3.62M on October 16, a 74% jump in the week of the announcement (week 42 report). The report does not attribute the cause, and a change to the supply data behind the figure could explain part of it, so treat it as a single-source signal.

A clearer example is the Halloween 2026 set, which went on sale in the Facepunch store in early October. On October 25 all three pieces were selling on the Steam Market for more than their store price:

Older seasonal items have gone the other way over the year: Halloween Hoodie 2025 sold for about $69 the week before launch and $11.75 on October 25, and Pumpkin Head 2025 fell from about $89 to $11.39. Cardboard King, the best-known expensive item, was $110 at the July median and $106.37 on October 25. We will add how these moved after the switch once it happens.

What to do with your inventory now

1. Know what you hold. Import your Steam inventory into a portfolio so you can see its value today and compare it after the switch.
2. Watch the items that matter to you. Star them from their item pages to follow them on your watchlist (sign-in required), and keep an eye on listing counts as well as price.
3. Don't sell into rumours. Nothing about the owner items, the Citizen clothing or the date is confirmed yet. Selling on a guess and buying back later costs you the fee twice.
4. Remember the 15%. Steam's fee on S&Box items is 15% on top of the seller's price, so a sale nets you about 87% of the listed price. The selling guide walks through it.
5. Expect scams around the switch. A free game brings new players, and new players attract fake “free skin” sites and impersonators. Facepunch turned on Steam's Trade Protection for S&Box items in May (Update 26.05.20), but it only helps with Steam trades, not with anything you hand to a third-party site. Our trading guide covers the common tricks.

FAQ

Is S&Box free now?

Not yet, as of our last check on October 25, 2026: the Steam store listed S&Box at $9.99. Facepunch has announced it will go free to play toward the end of 2026 but has not given a date. We will update this page when it switches.

When will S&Box be free to play?

Facepunch's October 13, 2026 post says it intends to go free to play "towards the end of the year". No exact date has been announced.

Will I get anything for buying S&Box?

Yes. Facepunch says everyone who paid for the game will automatically get a set of exclusive Steam inventory items, with extra items for people who bought it at $20 rather than $10. It has not said what the items are or whether they can be traded or sold.

Will my S&Box skins still work without the Citizen?

Facepunch is removing the Citizen and making the human model the default. It has not said how existing Citizen clothing will look on the human model. Your items stay in your Steam inventory either way; check them in-game after the change before buying or selling on rumours.

Will S&Box skins go up when it goes free to play?

Nobody knows. More players can mean more buyers, but launch brought a wave of players too and prices fell 82% at the median. Free accounts may also add supply through weekly drops. Watch the volume and listing counts on the items you hold rather than predictions.

Can I get a refund for S&Box?

Facepunch has not announced a refund offer for the free-to-play switch. Steam's standard refund policy applies: you can request a refund within 14 days of purchase if you have played for less than two hours.

For the full story of the launch and the months since, see the S&Box release timeline, or browse current prices on the market page and the seasonal items hub.