The release of Netflix's The Witcher last week seems to have had the side effect of massively boosting the player count of CD Projekt Red's video game trilogy adaptations of Andrzej Spakowski's book series.
According to SteamDB, The Witcher, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt have seen each of their player counts rise to levels not seen in years, with Witcher 3 drawing particularly strong numbers rivalling the Steam release of last year's Red Dead Redemption 2.
Witcher 3, released in 2015, peaked at 49,466 last weekend, its highest numbers since May 2016 during the release of the Blood and Wine DLC. The first game hit 5,623 and Witcher 2 hit 3,302.
Earlier this month, Netflix released their adaptation of Sapkowski's series, with Henry Cavill taking on the role of the Butcher of Blaviken. If you're planning a trip back to Velen but are longing for something more resembling the Netflix series, try this mod for The Witcher 3 that makes both the Geralt and Yennefer models look more like Henry Cavill's and Anya Chalotra's portrayal of the characters.
Recently, CD Projekt Red and Sapkowski came together on a new agreement on Sapkowski's compensation over the rights of Witcher video games. Sapkowski had previously made known his unhappiness with the contractual terms he had agreed to years ago before the dizzying success of CD Prokjekt's titles, and it appears that the studio has come to an agreement with the author moving forward, even mentioning possible future collaborations in the future.
Fortunately, though, CD Projekt and Sapkowski have come
While Netflix already renewed The Witcher for a second season last month, CD Projekt Red hasn't yet made any concrete announcements about the series' future on PC and consoles. Their next big RPG, the highly-anticipated Cyberpunk 2077, is due out April 16.