10 Most Expensive In-Game Items EVER

Star Citizen's Javelins are one of the best examples of gamers trusting in the 'long-term investment' model. Whilst it certainly wasn't the first title to have in-game items double up as currency, the amount developers Cloud Imperium Games have been able to raise for a game still in development is staggering.

The items that have made the biggest splash over the course of the game's lifetime have been Javelin Destroyer spaceships.

According to Cloud Imperium, these 1,132-foot-long Javelin Destroyers come with four primary thrusters, private rooms for the captain and officer, a hefty hanger bay capable of housing a Gunship, twelve manoeuvring thrusters, a heavily armoured bridge and a lifetime insurance warranty.

Players were also told that these ships were 'battle-hardened', meaning they would also have to fork out on the missing twenty gun turrets and two torpedo launchers. The end total needed to get these ships in working order? $2,500 real-world US dollars.

Not that that stopped the game's investors, however; within a minute of the auction going live, all two hundred Javelins had been sold, raising over half a million dollars for Cloud Imperium Games.

All of this in a game that STILL hasn't been released, even after a decade in development.

Going from a juggernaut spaceship capable of conquering entire galaxies to something far more humble, Runescape's famous Blue Party Hat once set a player back over $6,500.

In 2001, developers Jagex decided to host a special Christmas celebration in Runescape, spreading the season of goodwill by dropping Christmas Crackers to players which, when pulled, would result in the winners getting items and the losers getting a consolation party hat.

Despite being nothing more than a bit of fun that wasn't worth more than a few pennies initially, the party hats were all completely unobtainable following the discontinuation of this promo. The value of these hats subsequently began to soar, far eclipsing the maximum value allowed at the in-game Grand Exchange marketplace.

Price estimates for the item still value the Blue Party Hat at over two billion Runescape Gold, with recorded sales roughly equating to over $4,000. And, with no other hats being introduced since, it seems these incredibly rare items will only continue to rise in value over the coming years.

Again though... it's a paper party hat.

World of Warcraft is the world's most popular MOBA, home to some of the most dedicated players the gaming world has ever seen. Back in 2007, one of these players took dedication to the game to a staggering new height in a transaction that would see Blizzard clamp down on their character.

Zeuzo was a Level 70 Night Elf Rogue in WoW who managed to sell his character to a player called Shaks for roughly €7,000 (about $9,500 at the time).

The justification for this life-changing amount of money was that this Rogue came with the legendary Twin Blades of Azzinoth, which could only be looted off Illidan Stormrage's corpse in the Black Temple. Zeuzo then continued playing the game for years after the sale with a different Rogue build.

As for Shaks, the character quickly disappeared from the game with most believing their account had been banned. Blizzard have always been firm on their policy of selling accounts being a big no-no, so it's safe to say this might not have been the smartest of investments from this not-so-slick buyer.

The Killer Exclusive is an in-game cosmetic item made for Team Fortress 2 by its community of players. Named after the term for a juicy breaking news story, the item is a light beige fedora that can be worn by all classes with a card saying 'PRESS' sticking out the front.

The item was initially just a promotional tie-in launched with PC Gamer, but soon found its way into the game as a cosmetic, with the flaming variant quickly becoming one of the rarest pieces of equipment on the market.

The Burning Killer Exclusive's stock continued to climb over the following years, eventually being sold via TF2's marketplace for 400 Buds in 2014, a sum which, when converted, works out at around $12,000.

The trade was made between a player known as Shadow and the buyer Gorror, and became endemic of the impact community marketplaces can have on virtual items. It remains the highest-value trade in Team Fortress 2 history and is still fondly remembered by the community.

With the highest damage of any one-handed weapon, the Echoing Fury Mace's discovery in Diablo III was a watershed moment in the game's history.

Requiring a character level of 60 to drop, this legendary mace gained an infamous reputation for exploiting a damage allocation bug, becoming one of the most sought-after items.

With 1166.2–1433.8 Damage Per Second and 1.25–1.26 Attacks per Second as its base stats, the Echoing Fury Mace is the ultimate DPS-dealing machine. Following the 2.6.6 patch, the weapon gained a unique stacking element that increases attack speed and movement speed by 75%/25% in total for every enemy killed, just in case it wasn't powerful enough.

The original owner of the weapon famously sold the Echoing Fury Mace for a few thousand dollars to allegedly help pay their rent, but that didn't stop its stock from soaring in the years since.

A bid of 40 BILLION in-game gold was later coughed up by one player for the weapon which, when adjusted for real-world currency, equates to around $15,000.

Snail's Age of Wulin/Wushu launched in China in August 2012, but shot to the gaming world's attention with an auction in China on Christmas Day 2011. The auction was held for various digital in-game items players could purchase and use when the game launched.

Various rare items were listed and commanded decent prices, with the likes of the Hook of Departure (only 10 in the game) and a Lordly Spear Sheath (only 5) selling for 10,000 Yuan ($1,600 USD) and 18,300 ($2,500) respectively.

However, the biggest lot of the auction was for the Dragon Slaying Saber, a long scabbard that was eventually sold for 100,000 Yuan (roughly $16,000).

With the game still in beta at that point it was an astonishing moment, but the promise of it being a one-of-a-kind item that would only have one owner in its lifespan managed to coax someone into burning a hole in their wallet.

In January 2020, YouTuber Scott Manley broke internet headlines everywhere he lobbed a whopping $33,000 on a Gold Magnate in Eve Online, making it the most expensive ship sold in the game.

One of the rarest ships, these powerful Frigates have only ever popped up sporadically over the course of Eve's history, and have only been obtainable via in-game tournament rewards.

The historic purchase by Scott came during CCP Games' Plex for Good campaign, an initiative designed to raise funds for the Australian bushfires. The YouTuber purchased this Gold Magnate from user Kelon Darklight's auction with a bid of 1,001,001 PLEX.

For reference, PLEX is an in-game currency in Eve, with 1 million PLEX worth approximately $32,500 in real-world money. That 1 million PLEX is worth about 3.3 trillion ISK, the game's primary currency that most players deal in. Given the fact players start off with a ship worth around 5 million ISK (about $0.05), that makes this sale worth about 170 years of time in-game.

This $33,000 purchase certainly made a splash, but this is at least one transaction that found its way into doing some good outside of the game too.

In Valve's Dota 2, couriers are used to transport items to and from a base to players dotted across the map. Every player gets one, they are invulnerable when in their home fountain, and can earn passive gold for their owner through a match.

It's safe to say couriers aren't the most jaw-dropping part of this MMORPG, however that all changed in November 2013 when it was revealed a player had forked out a whopping $38,000 for one of these trusty steeds.

According to a player named 'PAADA', they sold their Ethereal Flames Pink War Dog to another user for that five-figure sum, via an auction on the Dota 2 subreddit.

The War Dogs are already amongst the most powerful couriers in the game, and the ethereal flame effect is a striking visual, but where the value in the item really comes from is its rarity.

Allegedly only four creatures of this kind existed in the game at the time, mainly due to Valve not having pink set as one of its primary ten colours, on account of glitches that could occur with black skins.

In turn, this made rarity skyrocket, and a user was there to capitalise.

Valve's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has a whole array of weapon and item skins players can purchase through the Steam marketplace. These in no way enhance someone's abilities in-game, but some of designs have commanded a hefty price tag over the years.

The most legendary is the Dragon Lore AWP, which was added to the game in 2014 as a part of the Boston 2018 Cobblestone Souvenir Package during Operation Breakout.

There are ten different cases that contain the Dragon Lore that players can grab, but it remains one of the rarest in the game with a drop rate of just 0.64%. The striking design coupled with this rarity has contributed to Dragon Lore's price fluctuating from $2,700 to $8,600, depending on its attached Quality stat.

For one particular player though, that wasn't sufficient. Following the release of the Souvenir Package in the wake of the Boston Major, one player forked over a hefty $61,000 for the Souvenir version of this legendary sniper rifle.

From its launch, MindArk emphasised that Entropia Universe would prioritise Capitalism over gameplay. The game's open marketplace allows players to redeem the in-game Project Entropia Dollar for US dollars at a fixed 10:1 exchange rate, which has led to some hefty investments into various in-game items.

The game has seen in-game items such as a Nest Egg, Holiday Resort and sections of a space station all auctioned off for tens of thousands of dollars, however, the biggest investment of all was reserved for its very first piece of major content added: Planet Calypso.

Having attracted over 950,000 registered accounts from over 200 countries, Planet Calypso acted as the centre-piece to Entropia's universe which prompted a mind-boggling $6 million purchase from fellow developers SEE Virtual Worlds in 2011.

The studio had planned to turn Calypso into a wacky tribute to Michael Jackson, where players could make donations to his various charities whilst remembering the King of Pop, but instead channelled that energy into the thankfully-cancelled game, Planet Michael.

Regardless, with over $428 million sunk into the world during its lifespan under MindArk, it's clear to see where the developers' lofty valuation came from.