The Witcher on Netflix isn’t perfect, but it sure is a hell of a lot of fun to watch. And it’s bringing old fans and newcomers to one of the best games of the decade. Today, The Witcher 3 hit a new record high in concurrent users on Steam at 94,601. A popular Netflix show, 70% off on Steam, and more gamers than ever have led to the surge in The Witcher 3’s popularity.
But it’s not only Steam seeing a bump. The Witcher 3 is back on the most played chart over at Xbox thanks to the reasons I mentioned above. Plus, it was recently added to Xbox Game Pass.
The Witcher 3 is sitting at #27 on Xbox’s Most Played Games. That’s almost as popular as Sea of Thieves and more popular than games like Gears 5, Battlefield V, and Mortal Kombat 11. Not too shabby for a game that came out in 2015.
Player counts for The Witcher 3 started surging soon after the show debuted on Netflix on December 19. By December 22, player counts were up 50% compared to the day before the show debuted. Since then, it’s been hitting new highs every day.
Can it crack 100,000 on Steam? If it does, it’ll be one of only about 60 games that have ever punched through the 100,000 concurrent player count on Steam.
The good news for The Witcher got even better last week after The Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski and The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red settled a dispute over royalties. From Gamespot:
“The statement, released by CDPR, did not disclose the details of the agreement, but it did state that it’s intended to resolve the current legal case and set a clearer path forward. It also says that the agreement “confers new rights” upon CDPR while retaining its existing title rights for The Witcher games, graphic novels, board games, and merchandise.”
CD Projekt Red is busy putting the final touches on their next game, Cyberpunk 2077 – but with The Witcher franchise more popular than ever, I’m sure we’ll see the developer return to the fantasy universe at some point.
Game of Thrones fans were looking for their next fantasy fix, and they found it in The Witcher.