S&Box Skin Prices 6 Months After Launch: What Happened to Every Item (Data Report)

The short answer: the typical S&Box skin is worth about a fifth of what it cost the week before launch. We have logged the Steam Market price of every S&Box item since April 11, 2026, more than two weeks before the game's April 28 release (hourly until July 14; the gap after that is explained below). Of the 74 items that already had a market price before launch, 73 trade below that price today. The median item is down 82%.

This report covers what moved, when, what held up best, and what the numbers suggest if you are holding or thinking of buying. Every item is linked to its live price page, and the full table is at the bottom of the page.

The numbers at a glance

items tracked since before launch

74

median change, pre-launch to Oct 25

−82%

items below their pre-launch price

73 of 74

same-basket market cap

$10.7M → $2.13M

Over the same period, S&Box went from a launch-week peak of 4,709 concurrent players to an average of about 400, according to SteamCharts.

What we expected, and what happened

Before launch, our own guides told readers that popular items “typically spike 30–200% in the first 48 hours” and that limited seasonal items would lead. Most of YouTube said the same. We were wrong. In the two weeks after release, 20 of the 74 items touched a price at least 10% above their pre-launch level, and only four got 30% or more above it:

• Surgical Face Mask: +86% ($4.71 to $8.74)
• Pirate Hook: +58% ($3.60 to $5.70)
• Lunar Trousers 2026: +39% ($9.26 to $12.85)
• Wizard Hat: +30% ($45.95 to $59.93)

Those were brief highs, not new floors. By July every one of the 74 items was below its pre-launch price, with a median drop of 79%.

Launch week: a two-day drop and a bounce

Measured as a fixed basket (the same 74 items, each multiplied by its supply), the market was worth about $10.2M on launch day. Two days later it was $7.4M, down 28%. A short bounce took it back to $8.9M on May 2, which was the last time it came close to launch levels. Our weekly report for May 4 recorded a 23% weekly fall in market cap, and the May 11 report a further 41%.

May to July: the long bleed

From mid-May the slide slowed but did not stop. The basket was worth $4.3M on May 12, between $2.6M and $3.5M through June, and $2.36M by July 14. Average prices kept drifting down with no second leg up.

One honest caveat about our own data: our hourly price refresh stopped working after July 14 and was only repaired in late October, so there is a gap in our history between July 14 and October 25. The dashed line in the chart bridges that gap; it is not a measurement. The October 25 figures come from a full snapshot of the Steam Market taken that morning.

Why prices fell

The first three points below are documented facts. The last one is our reading of the evidence.

• Fewer players than the hype implied. SteamCharts shows a May average of 1,788 concurrent players, falling to 335 in August. Steam reviews were “Mixed” at launch (44% positive, per Facepunch's own post-release update) and sat at 47% in October. Garry Newman has since described the launch in blunt terms (80.lv, Kotaku).
• More supply, every week. Since Update 26.05.20, players can earn a free, tradable item once a week. New store items kept arriving too. Steam listed 238 S&Box items on October 25, against the 74 that had a price before launch.
• The game got cheaper. S&Box launched at $19.99, was cut to $9.99 in mid-September, and on October 13 Facepunch announced it is going free to play toward the end of the year. We cover what that means for item owners in S&Box is going free to play.
• Our reading: pre-launch prices were never deep. Before release, only people with closed access could play, and prices were set by a few thousand holders. The most expensive items still have one to five listings on the whole market today. Prices set on order books that thin say more about the last trade than about what a crowd of new buyers would pay, and the crowd turned out to be smaller than expected.

Winners and losers

There are no winners in the usual sense: only one item is above its pre-launch price. These are the items that lost the least and the most between the week before launch and October 25.

Held up best

The Neck Tattoo is the only item above its pre-launch price, but its $1,800 price is one seller's ask, not a market. sbox.trading's week 43 report logged a $1,754 sale on October 14, so it really does change hands at that level, roughly once in a while. About 135 exist.

Fell hardest

Two of the seven are from the Easter 2026 set, sold in the store from March 30 to April 13 and printed in more than 20,000 copies each. Easter Bunny Hat 2026 had 522 sell listings on October 25, the most of any S&Box item.

Biggest rebounds since July

Between July and October the picture is more mixed: 23 of the 74 items rose, and the median fell another 16%. The best recoveries came from low bases:

Reindeer Top 2025 more than doubled from its summer low, which may be early Christmas demand. Even so, it is still 67% below where it traded before launch.

Did scarcity protect value?

The pre-launch argument for seasonal items was simple: they leave the store, supply is fixed, so they hold value better. Over six months, they did not. Seasonal items fell 83% at the median, slightly worse than the market as a whole (82%). Hats, home of the Cardboard King and Skull Helmet, fell furthest.

Supply tells a clearer story at the top end of the range. The most-printed items fell hardest: the four items with more than 15,000 copies (the two Easter 2026 pieces, Plague Doctor Mask and Punk Helmet) are down 89% at the median. Being rare helped far less. Of the four items under 1,000 copies, the two tattoos held up, while Grand Ball Gown (−86%) and Bandana Hair (−85%) fell as hard as anything.

Browse what is in each group today on the seasonal, hats and outfits pages.

What happened to the most expensive items

The six priciest items before launch, and where they are now:

Cardboard King went from $494.50 to $106.37 and has barely moved since July. Santa 2024 Hat and Santa Trousers 2024 lost close to nine-tenths of their value. You can put two of them side by side on the Cardboard King vs Skull Helmet comparison page.

The tattoos are the exception, and the reason is the order book: with five listings or fewer, a single sale resets the price. That same thinness is behind the most-repeated rumour in the S&Box scene, a “$30,000 Hard Hat” mentioned in a YouTube video description in April. We found no tracker that records a sale anywhere near that. The biggest Hard Hat sale sbox.trading reported in the 30 days to October 22 was $1,649.

Do new releases hold value?

Not in the first months. Nine items reached the market on June 1, 2026. We recorded each one's first listing price and followed it:

All nine are below their first price, and the median is down 53%. The first days of a new item are when the fewest copies exist and the most people want one, so the earliest price tends to be the highest. Treat it as a ceiling, not a floor.

What the data says for buyers and holders

This is not financial advice. It is what six months of prices suggest:

• Check listings and volume before price. An item with 300 listings has a real price. An item with two has an opinion. Our item pages show recent sales and link to the Steam listing page, which shows how many copies are for sale.
• Remember the fee. Steam adds 15% on top of what the seller receives (5% for Steam, 10% for Facepunch), so the seller keeps about 87% of the buyer's price. An item has to rise about 15% before a resale breaks even. Our selling guide has the full math.
• Watch store exits. The Halloween 2026 Onesie, Bucket Hat and Slippers are in the store now and trade above their store prices on the market. Trackers expect them to leave the store around November 7, based on last year's Halloween window. What happens next is the next test of the “limited” idea; see our limited items guide.
• Track your own position. Prices since launch only matter against what you paid. Import your Steam inventory, add buy prices, and the portfolio tracker shows your profit or loss. Star the items you care about to follow them on your watchlist.

Methodology

• Price. Steam's lowest current listing price in USD, which is what a buyer pays including fees. It is not a completed sale price and not what a seller receives. We recorded it hourly from April 11 to July 14, 2026, and again from October 25. See how to read S&Box price data.
• Windows. Pre-launch is the median of April 21–27, 2026. The launch peak is the highest price between April 28 and May 11. July is the median of July 1–14. October 25 is the lowest listing that morning (around 08:50 UTC); listing counts come from a full Steam Market snapshot taken at 10:24 UTC the same day.
• Basket. The 74 items that had a market price before launch. The whole market is larger now: Steam listed 238 S&Box items on October 25, and newer items are not in these comparisons.
• Market cap. Price × supply, summed over the basket. Supply comes from sbox.wiki and is approximate, so read market cap as a trend rather than a precise figure. Other sites estimated the whole 238-item market at between $2.8M and $3.75M on the same day, depending on their method.
• Gap. Our scheduled refresh did not record prices between July 14 and October 25. We have not filled that period with estimates.

FAQ

Are S&Box skins worth investing in now?

Not as a sure thing. 73 of the 74 items we tracked from before launch trade below their pre-launch price, and the median item is down 82%. Some items have recovered from their summer lows, but every purchase has to clear Steam's 15% fee before it makes money. Buy what you want to wear, and treat any resale value as a bonus.

Why did S&Box skin prices drop?

Pre-launch prices were set by a small closed-access player base trading on thin order books. After launch, player numbers settled far below the hype (about 400 concurrent on average since August), while supply kept growing through weekly drops and new store items. The game itself also got cheaper: $19.99 at launch, $9.99 from September, and free to play announced for late 2026.

What is the most expensive S&Box skin?

On October 25, 2026 the highest asking price on the Steam Market was the Neck Tattoo at $1,800, from a single listing. Scientist Hazmat Yellow ($645.88) and Face Tattoos ($520) were next. Asking prices on items with one to five listings can move a lot from one sale to the next.

Where can I see S&Box price history?

Every item page on S&Box Tracker has a price history chart built from our own snapshots. The last 7 and 30 days are free; longer views, back to April 11, 2026, are part of Premium. The market page also shows a total market cap chart and the biggest movers, and this report includes the full table for 74 items.

Full data: all 74 items

Sorted from the biggest fall to the smallest. You are welcome to use this data; please credit “S&Box Tracker” and link to this page.