25 million is a huge landmark to reach for game titles, and Cyberpunk 2077 has reached it. The achievement was officially revealed by CD Projekt Red during their Investor Day presentation, led by President and CEO Adam Kiciński. This milestone, an impressive increase of five million units since September 2022, reflects the game’s remarkable journey, especially with its rocky beginnings.
Notably, the recent Phantom Liberty expansion has contributed significantly to this success, recording an impressive three million units sold within its inaugural week.
Kiciński proudly emphasised that Cyberpunk 2077’s trajectory is now outpacing the performance of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Considering the challenging launch of the series, which led to its temporary removal from the PlayStation Store, this achievement is even more remarkable.
Comparatively, Cyberpunk 2077 reached the 25 million mark in approximately two years and 10 months, whereas The Witcher 3 took around four-and-a-half years to achieve the same milestone. For context, The Witcher 3 achieved 28 million units sold in December 2019, roughly four years and seven months post-launch, and most recently recorded a staggering 50 million in total sales.
It’s worth noting that 68 percent of copies of Phantom Liberty were sold on PC, 20 percent on PlayStation 5, and 13 percent on Xbox Series X and S. On Steam, both the game and its expansion pack are also leading as the top sellers under the non-free-to-play category, in both first and second place.
CD Projekt Red also revealed that the development and marketing costs for the expansion amounted to around 275 million Polish Zloty (approximately $62.7 million) and 95 million Polish Zloty (around $21.6 million), respectively.
The Phantom Liberty expansion, released on 26 September, was preceded by update 2.0, which laid the foundation for the former. This brought significant improvements to Cyberpunk 2077, including a revamped perk system, revised skill tree and enhanced AI, while addressing several mysteries within the game, including references to Elon Musk and the late racing legend Ken Block.
Interestingly, CD Projekt Red provided players with the option to decline events in the paid expansion entirely, with specific dialogue choices locking some missions away permanently, adding yet another twist to the game’s narrative. On a wider scale, the future of the franchise is looking bright, with a live-action project and a sequel to the game currently in the works.
Kaylyn is usually geeking out over gacha games or the latest updates in a manga, and can talk all day about them. She’s also an avid collector, and really needs more space to store her game merchandise, utaite CDs and manga books.
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