We know we’re a little late on getting to the stats for Cyberpunk 2077, but we wanted to make sure nothing else popped out of the woodwork. This is one of the biggest games that I’ve ever seen launch. It’s bigger than everything that my friends and I got excited about in the early 2000s, and it’s certainly bigger than anything before that. This game has set a new standard for ridiculous stats, and I love that so much. Let’s dive into these stats with what I think is the best first.
Cyberpunk 2077 took a single day of sale to recoup its development costs. Those development costs were somewhere around $135 million, which doesn’t include the marketing costs on top of it. This means that it made that much profit for the company on that first day on the market. It’s mind-blowing that a game can do that, but we need to remember that this is a release from the developer that created The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I suspect they’ll be living off of it for a good while yet.
This is thanks to the second ridiculous stat we need to look at. The game sold 8 million copies before it even launched. It had 8 million pre-orders because the launch moved so often, and people got excited and pre-ordered it as each new launch date approached. Regardless of whether it’s a great way to boost pre-orders, it’s easily the most I’ve ever seen for a game. To put it into perspective, more people than there are in Hong Kong owned this game on the day it launched. Does that not blow your mind?
CD Projekt Red has a bit of a reputation when it comes to games. Each one is expected to be phenomenal at this point. That has come back to bite them in the ass with this one given all the bugs it launched with. On the whole though, I think that it’s a crowning achievement, and the best work they’ve ever put out. It’s the complete opposite of the fresh natural world in The Witcher franchise, and gives us a stark reminder of where we’re heading if we don’t take better care of the planet.