Who would have thought in 2020 that Cyberpunk would redeem itself from the worst launch ever seen in the video game industry. The absolute disaster caused by CD Projekt Red has become a very well finished bestseller.
2024 has started favorably for CD Projekt RED, as the Polish game developer announced yesterday that Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty sold over five million units across all platforms, surpassing the previous milestone of 4.3 million units by the end of November.
The long-awaited expansion has arrived almost three years after the release of the base game, but the wait has been worth it. Phantom Liberty has received critical acclaim, including the recently announced five nominations for the New York Game Awards.
Reasons for an unexpected success
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty builds upon what was already a great game to deliver a more fantastical story (with a spy thriller theme this time), thrilling combat, and very interesting side missions.
The review of the advantage tree is a great improvement for progression, and additions like vehicle combat and the revamped police system are very welcome, although they don’t change the game.
If you have been waiting for Cyberpunk 2077 until now, you will find a huge game with over 120 hours of high-quality content and an incredibly immersive gaming world to literally get lost in. As if that weren’t enough, it is by far the most beautiful and technically advanced game available if you have the hardware for it (PC and RTX 40 GPU).
The success of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is great news for CD Projekt RED, which spent a considerable amount of resources (of which a significant portion probably went to Idris Elba for his role as Solomon Reed) to make it happen.
The Polish studio has revealed that the expansion has cost them around 85 million dollars, although this figure includes marketing. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is priced at $29.99, so its sales have already surpassed the $150 million mark.
Of course, CD Projekt RED has to give up 30% of the slice to Valve (on Steam), Sony (on PlayStation), and Microsoft (on Xbox), although a good portion of their PC sales usually occur on GOG, which is owned by CDPR.
