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Cyberpunk 2077 is CD Projekt Red’s biggest game ever, despite its disastrous launch

Cyberpunk 2077 is CD Projekt Red’s biggest game ever, despite its disastrous launch

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The game sold more than 13.7 million copies in 2020

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A screenshot from Cyberpunk 2077.
A screenshot from Cyberpunk 2077.
Image: CD Projekt Red

Despite Cyberpunk 2077’s disastrous and bug-filled December 10th launch, the title was “the largest game in CD Projekt Red’s history,” the studio said on Thursday (PDF). The game sold 13.7 million copies in 2020, according to CD Projekt Red.

We already had a pretty good idea that Cyberpunk 2077 has been a major financial success for the studio. On December 9th, one day before the game’s launch, CD Projekt Red announced that Cyberpunk 2077 had accrued 8 million preorders. One day after the game’s release, CD Projekt Red said digital preorders had recouped all of the game’s development and marketing costs. And the studio said that the game had sold more than 13 million copies as of December 20th in a memo shared on December 22nd.

Cyberpunk 2077 drove massive sales even though its launch was a huge mess. The game had bugs and issues on many platforms and ran particularly poorly on older consoles, forcing CD Projekt Red to quickly release numerous hotfixes. The game’s performance and fan outcry were so bad that Sony yanked the game from the PlayStation Store just one week after launch, and months later, it still hasn’t returned.

CD Projekt Red also said on Thursday that its hit RPG The Witcher 3 sold more than 30 million copies, making 2020 “the second best year in [the game’s] history with regard to the number of copies sold.” In addition, the studio committed to releasing PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S-optimized versions of Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 in the second half of 2021.