CD Projekt, the Polish studio responsible for Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher games, has overtaken Ubisoft to become Europe's most valuable game company. CDP has been one of the fastest-growing companies on the European stock market for over ten years, but its recent boom in popularity has pushed the company into the top percentile.
CD Projekt achieved international renown thanks to its video games in The Witcher series, particularly The Witcher 3. Consistently called one of the greatest games of all time, The Witcher 3 has continued to pay major dividends to the studio, especially considering the release of the Nintendo Switch version. CDP has also benefited from the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher, as enthusiasm for the brand drives new and old fans to the games, and the studio's highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 is planned launch in September as well. All of these factors have made CDP more valuable than ever before.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, CD Projekt's market capital has risen to $8.13 billion, just surpassing Ubisoft's current market valuation of $8.12 billion. This officially makes it the most valuable video game company in Europe, at least for the time being. CD Projekt was valued at $6.8 billion by the end of 2019, capping off the decade with a staggering 21,000% return on investments. Even more impressive is the fact that the company grew by well over $1 billion in only a few months after that.
This is unprecedented success for a studio with so few IPs to its name, but the bigger international video game companies still outstrip CD Projekt Red by a wide margin. Activision Blizzard remains at the top of the stock market with a valuation of $56.27 billion, and Nintendo is close behind with $53.73 billion. EA sits at $34.34 billion while Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two is currently at $16.13 billion. It's also important to note that these are companies which deal exclusively in the video game industry, so giants like Sony, Microsoft, and Tencent are not comparable.
It's surprising to hear that CD Projekt has beaten out a company like Ubisoft, which has a much larger stable of IPs and is usually developing multiple games at a time. On the other hand, the stock market is constantly in flux, and Ubisoft already has a number of new titles coming down the pipe for the next generation of consoles. It remains to be seen how long CDPR will be able to maintain its growth after the release of Cyberpunk 2077.
Source: Video Games Chronicle