The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt surely was one of 2015’s top video games. It’s superb story, characters and highly detailed medieval fantasy world based on the novels of renowned Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski made it one of the top games to hit shelves that year.
It’s no surprise then that the game has sold millions of copies, and that it has continued to sell strongly to this day. The game also got two expansions, the second of which (which was titled “Blood and Wine”) being so good some reviewers suggested it should have been 2016’s game of the year.
It seems gamers have an unending appetite for The Witcher, then, something which has proven true with the release of Netflix’s TV series starring Man of Steel actor Henry Cavill, which turned out to be a smashing success last year.
And now CD Projekt (the company behind The Witcher games) has revealed that it had its best fourth quarter ever in its most recent earnings report, as was reported on GameSpot.com.
“The fourth quarter of 2019 was the best final period of the year in our history. We are extremely pleased with the unceasing popularity of The Witcher 3 — especially given the fact that the game will be celebrating its 5th anniversary in just a couple of weeks”, said CD Projekt executive Piotr Nielubowicz.
All in all, the company made 521 million PLN ($125 million US dollars) in revenue in 2019. A big chunk of this was due to sales of The Witcher 3, mainly the game’s new Nintendo Switch version, which came out in October 2019 and which sold more than half a million copies in the year.
Some could argue though, that CD Projekt is just a one trick pony: it’s made one great, top-selling game and won’t be able to repeat that success in the future. And certainly the company cannot live off The Witcher 3 forever – even if its GOG.com store is doing quite well in its own, bringing in almost $40 million US dollars in 2019, a record.
The key here is whether CD Projekt’s upcoming game Cyberpunk 2077 can emulate The Witcher 3’s success and become another hit for the company. If it turns out to be a disappointment, it could turn away loyal fans.
But given that CD Projekt now employs over a thousand people, it certainly has a wealth of talent at its disposal to make the best game possible, so here’s hoping that its upcoming sci-fi role-playing game truly lives up to the hype when it arrives this September.
Read more: Cyberpunk 2077 dev explains why it chose to make that game instead of more Witcher