The Witcher series has some of the best settings and world-building you will ever find in video games. The world is extensive, full of interesting lore and quests to complete, and simply breathtaking. The games themselves have received global acclaim as masterpieces, especially The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which has been hailed as one of the best games ever made, together with its DLCs. Since the first game was released, The Witcher series has accumulated numerous achievements and accolades that prove the series deserves the fame it receives, so today we’re going to be taking a look at some Witcher statistics and see how the series stands within the folds of the gaming industry. Speaking of the gaming industry, we’ve got you covered if you want to know how things like esports revenue stand!
The Witcher key stats
This first section is where we will take a look at some of the general statistics surrounding the Witcher series such as total copies sold across the entire series as well as the sales of individual titles- We will also see the sort of revenue accomplishments the series had made over the years, for even more insight. Since there are new developments in the Witcher series all the time, we’ll also examine some of the news and announcements that are relevant to the series. So, let’s take a look!
The Witcher series has sold 65 million copies since the first game.
(Source: Statista)
- The original Witcher game sold over 1 million copies.
- The Witcher III: Wild Hunt sold 40 million copies.
- The Witcher II: Assassins of Kings sold 2.20 million copies.
- The rest of the sales are undocumented and are most likely for games like GWENT, Thronebreaker, etc.
- The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is CD Projekt Red’s best-selling game.
In this first line of stats, we can see that the Witcher series has accumulated a vast amount of sales over the years, but it is more than apparent that not all of the games are made the same. While The Witcher and The Witcher II: Assassins of Kings had sales ranging from 1 to 2 million, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt completely stole the show by selling more than 40 million copies worldwide, which is a staggering difference. Nevertheless, we can see that the series is going in a good direction, and if rumors are anything to go by, the next game is going to be even better!
The Witcher III’s peak player count was in January 2020 with 103,329.
(Source: Steam Charts)
- Every other month since 2020, The Witcher 3 saw a player count between 80,000 and 25,000.
- The Witcher had a peak player count of 12,627 in January 2020.
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings had a peak player count of 12,864 in May 2015.
Even though the first two games don’t have that many hours logged on Twitch because the third game has taken all of the popularity, it doesn’t mean that their quality should be diminished. As for The Witcher III, we can see that the player count peaked at around 100 thousand players with the average player count showing much lower numbers, but these are bound to increase as the release date for The Witcher 4 draws nearer.
CD Projekt Red has confirmed to be working on a fourth Witcher title named Project Polaris.
(Source: Laptop Mag)
- The game is going to depart from REDengine, CDPR’s custom engine in favor of the much more powerful Unreal Engine 5.
- There is no release date set for the next game, but it is most likely not going to release before 2026, following the development trends of other Witcher games.
- When it comes to the story of the next Witcher, it is still unclear if the story will follow the 2015 game or be a standalone story.
This came as a bit of a surprise because no one was expecting another game following the success of the 2015 titan, but hey, we’re not complaining! Although the details about the next installment are a bit vague, we can expect the game to be insane since it should be powered by the very capable Unreal Engine 5. Not only that, but CD Projekt Red announced a new trilogy of Witcher games in development!
The Witcher III received a next-gen update 7 years after the game was released.
(Source: The Witcher, VGC)
- The update included the addition of ray tracing settings popular in other games following the release of the Nvidia 30 series.
- The developers also included various community-made mods that people loved to use alongside the base game.
- And ULTRA+ setting was added that even further increased the visual fidelity of the game, changing elements from environmental details to lighting and weather.
- Aside from the visual improvements and the new camera angle that makes it look like a new game, some general bug fixes and quality-of-life updates were also added.
- A physical release of the next-gen version of the game was confirmed to be coming out.
This was another thing that the community wasn’t really expecting, but it’s a welcome change nonetheless. The next-gen update for the Witcher came as a bit unoptimized as members of the community reported that the game was very choppy and hard to play, but it’s still a step in the right direction as the game needed some attention and refinement, and everyone is very thankful for that.
The Witcher III is the biggest game in the series with 100 hours in the storyline.
(Source: GameSkinny, Thumb Culture UK)
- The original Witcher has 808,353 lines of code.
- The Witcher II has 753,432 lines of code.
- The Witcher III has 1,135,617 lines of code.
- The original Witcher has 20,000 lines of dialogue.
- The Witcher II has 23,000 lines of dialogue.
- The Witcher III has 30,000 lines of dialogue.
- The Witcher III has won 281 awards.
- The world of The Witcher III is larger than the other two games combined.
- The original Witcher requires 60 hours to beat the game.
- The Witcher II requires 55 hours to beat the game.
- The Witcher III requires 100 hours to beat the game.
Scale is something that games have been attempting to emphasize for years, and they do this by creating massive worlds packed with content to explore. Take games like Skyrim, Elden Ring, Minecraft, and Red Dead Redemption; these games are insanely massive and offer hundreds of hours of gameplay. This is where a good deal of the appeal for The Witcher lies as well, and The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is the largest of the Witcher games so far. With a map sprawling across 135 square kilometers, you can be sure that you will get lost in questing!
Sources
- “Lifetime unit sales generated by the Witcher series worldwide as of April 2022”. Statista, 2023, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1305779/the-witcher-games-sales-worldwide/
- “Lifetime unit sales generated by The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt worldwide as of April 2022”. Statista, 2023, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1305839/the-witcher-wild-hunt-games-sales-worldwide/
- “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (All)”. VG Chartz, 2023, https://www.vgchartz.com/game/227681/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt/?region=All
- “The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (All)”. VG Chartz, 2023, https://www.vgchartz.com/game/227680/the-witcher-2-assassins-of-kings/?region=All
- “The Witcher (PC)”. VG Chartz, 2023, https://www.vgchartz.com/game/12396/the-witcher/?region=All
- “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt”. Steam Charts, 2023, https://steamcharts.com/app/292030
- “The Witcher: Enhanced Edition”. Steam Charts, 2023, https://steamcharts.com/app/20900
- “The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition”. Steam Charts, 2023, https://steamcharts.com/app/20920
- “The Witcher 3 most awards of all time?”. Thumb Culture, 2022, https://www.thumbculture.co.uk/witcher-awards
- “CD Projekt RED Delivers New Information About The Witcher 3 Through Sexy Infographic”. GameSkinny, 2013, https://www.gameskinny.com/kpgyl/cd-projekt-red-delivers-new-information-about-the-witcher-3-through-sexy-infographic
- “New Witcher trilogy and Cyberpunk 2077 sequel revealed in CD Projekt Red product roadmap”. Laptop Mag, 2022, https://www.laptopmag.com/news/new-witcher-trilogy-and-cyberpunk-2077-sequel-revealed-in-cd-projekt-red-product-roadmap
- “The Witcher 4 (Project Polaris): Everything we know so far”. Laptop Mag, 2023, https://www.laptopmag.com/news/the-witcher-4
- “Next-gen update list of changes”. The Witcher, 2022, https://www.thewitcher.com/en/news/47105/next-gen-update-list-of-changes
- “Witcher 3 is getting a boxed retail release on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S next week”. VGS, 2023, https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/witcher-3-is-getting-a-boxed-retail-release-on-ps5-and-xbox-series-x-s-next-week/