CD Projekt Red has revealed that The Witcher series has sold over 40 million copies to date, and that half of that number comes from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This means that The Witcher 3 has surpassed more 20 million copies sold. The Witcher series spans three games but only found mainstream success when the third game was released. It’s incredible to see a series with just three games sell over 40 million copies, especially as single-player open-world RPGs don’t usually hit those numbers in this day and age.
The Witcher series was developed by Polish developer CD Projekt Red and was initially published by Atari. The game series is based on the novel series of the same name created by Polish author, Andrzej Sapkowski. The games are loosely based on the books. Popularity is likely to increase again with Netflix’s upcoming web-series adaption based on both the book and video game series. The video game series follows famous monster hunter, Geralt of Rivia, as he travels the world hunting monsters. The initial title’s gameplay may have been a standard affair but its storytelling and player choice is what made it a stand out when it hit PCs in 2007.
The first game became a cult classic in the PC community and was followed by a sequel in 2011; The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. The game was bigger than the first but still didn’t gained mainstream appeal. It was only when The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released in 2015 that developer CD Projekt Red became a household name.
It was one of the biggest releases of the year and is widely-regarded as one of the greatest games ever made. Since then, the game has been steadily selling and growing in popularity. It was recently announced that it will be coming to the Nintendo Switch later this year, which will surely increase sales numbers.
Without a doubt, The Witcher series has made CD Projekt Red one of the biggest developers in the modern era. With the developer’s next major game Cyberpunk 2077 set to be released soon, it is safe to say that hype is at insane levels because of their good reputation. It seems that CD Projekt may once again redefine open-world games.
What was your first Witcher game?
