Last week, we covered what seemed to be a sudden surge in player numbers for CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077, likely caused by the Edgerunners anime now available on Netflix.
What could have been dismissed as a momentary rebound is turning out to be a far more stable comeback, though. Cyberpunk 2077 is now once again one of the top-selling games on Steam, placing itself in the global chart’s third place after EA Sports FIFA 23 and Return to Monkey Island, two games that have just been released (the latter) or will soon be released (the former).
The open world first-person action RPG also peaked at 136.7K concurrent players earlier today. That’s far more than The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt ever had, as noted by industry analyst Benji-Sales on Twitter.
Cyberpunk 2077 just passed the ALL TIME Steam Peak Concurrent Players for The Witcher 3
Cyberpunk: 104,827
The Witcher 3 (all time peak): 103,329Absolutely nuts. Nearly 2 years after launch Cyberpunk has more people playing it right now on Steam than The Witcher 3 has ever had pic.twitter.com/88tarGZibs
— Benji-Sales (@BenjiSales) September 24, 2022
Of course, Cyberpunk 2077’s all-time record remains far higher, having been registered at over a million concurrent players. Indeed, despite all the negativity that stemmed from the issues on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the game was declared the biggest digital launch ever by SuperData Research.
As mentioned near the article’s beginning, much of the resurgence is believed to be owed to the Edgerunners anime TV series, which received universal acclaim from critics and fans alike for its compelling worldbuilding, enjoyable characters, and excellent animation (made by Studio Trigger, the Japanese team behind Little Witch Academia). It’s also not the first time that the Polish studio enjoyed the Netflix effect, as much the same thing happened when the first season of The Witcher became available on the streaming service.
However, while Edgerunners might have triggered many fans’ desire to come back to Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt RED’s own work through various big updates should not be discounted. Since the late 2020 launch, the developers worked hard to improve various game areas, fix bugs, and make balancing changes. Update 1.6, dubbed Edgerunners because it launched alongside the Netflix TV series, added the long-awaited transmogrification feature, allowing players to finally look stylish while still wearing the most useful armor sets.
There’s more coming to Cyberpunk 2077, as CD Projekt RED promised to overhaul vehicle-to-vehicle combat and the police system ahead of the highly anticipated Phantom Liberty expansion due next year. Additionally, PC fans will soon be treated to an enhanced ray-tracing-powered Overdrive Mode.
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