Cyberpunk 2077 has now sold more than 20 million copies

CD Projekt's cyberenaissance continue today with word from the studio that Cyberpunk 2077 has now sold more than 20 million copies.

"Over 20 million cyberpunks have been roaming the streets of Night City—partying with Jackie and getting to know Johnny, driving around with Panam and diving with Judy, hanging out with River and listening to Kerry’s songs," CD Projekt tweeted. "Thank you and we hope to see you all in the Afterlife!"

Afterlife, by the way, is a nightclub in Cyberpunk 2077 that caters primarily to mercs and muscle.

Selling 20 million copies is a remarkable achievement that puts the game in some very impressive company, including CD Projekt's previous game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, although it's still a far cry from the true behemoths like Minecraft (238 million), Grand Theft Auto 5 (170 million), or PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (75 million). Even more impressive is how quickly it accomplished the feat. It took Stardew Valley six years to sell 20 million copies, for instance, while The Witcher 3 took four years; Cyberpunk 2077 pulled it off in less than two.

CD Projekt's official investor relations account, which is normally a straitlaced source of financial and regulatory information for investors, analysts, and other business types, was having some fun with the big number too.

Cyberpunk's sales were certainly front-loaded: more than half were rung up within a few weeks of its December 2020 release, thanks to a hugely successful pre-launch campaign that pulled in roughly eight million preorders—enough to make the game a bonafide hit before it was even released. Even so, more than six million sales over the subsequent year-and-a-half is nothing to sneeze at, especially given the game's well-publicized problems and complete absence from the PlayStation Store for much of that time.

Rather than taking the loss and walking away after the car-crash release, CD Projekt has continued to work on Cyberpunk 2077, pushing back plans for new content and expansions in order to focus on fixes and performance improvements. Those efforts are undoubtedly paying off, but the game also got a big bump from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the anime that debuted on Netflix earlier this month. It convinced Wes to give the game another shot (or at least think about it) and plenty of others felt the same way. The average and peak concurrent player counts on Steam skyrocketed, and it bounced back into the middle of Steam's top 10 games by player count, too—a hell of a comeback by any measure.