2 years after a disastrous launch, the video game 'Cyberpunk 2077' is making a comeback thanks to a hit new Netflix series
- The video game "Cyberpunk 2077" is making a comeback after a disastrous launch two years ago.
- Game sales are strong and a new "Cyberpunk" anime is one of Netflix's top shows right now.
The video game "Cyberpunk 2077" is seeing strong signs of life after a disastrous launch nearly two years ago.
When it first debuted in December, 2020, the sci-fi role-playing game was nearly unplayable for many players on last-generation PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles thanks to rampant glitches, prompting Sony to even remove it from the PlayStation store for six months.
But it's since seen improvements with major updates. Now it's making a comeback, with strong game sales and a popular new Netflix anime series pulling in a new audience.
The Netflix anime, "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners," was in Netflix's own top 10 TV shows Wednesday and Thursday (the streamer bases its daily top 10 lists on the number of hours viewed the previous 24 hours).
Last Wednesday, the game's developer, CD Projekt Red, announced that the game had seen 1 million daily active users each day that week. And earlier this week, it said that the game had sold 20 million copies. The developer last said in April it had sold 18 million copies.
The game has also seen a surge on the PC game-distribution service Steam. Early on Thursday, it had over 90,000 concurrent players, according to SteamDB, a database that tracks Steam activity. That's more than double its peak from two weeks ago, according to Eurogamer.
"It's hard to express when you're putting so much heart and soul into something, and for some of us it's been six, seven, eight years sometimes, especially for those who started at the very beginning — so to have this moment of people liking something that we did, it's really feeling a bit unreal," Pawel Sasko, quest director at CD Projekt Red, said during a Twitch stream this week.
He added, "It's fucking good to be back, honestly."