The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launched in 2015 to widespread acclaim, and now four years later, it’s getting a huge boost in players after the premiere of The Witcher TV series on Netflix. Reaction to The Witcher from fans and critics has been mixed, but it’s clearly hitting the right notes for existing fans of the video game and book series.
When The Witcher debuted on Netflix on December 20, it immediately became a huge topic of conversation. One problem that a lot of people seem to have with the show is the vast amount of Witcher lore that newcomers to the series may struggle with. With about three decades of history since the first short stories were published, it’s no surprise that some people feel a little left in the dark, especially for those who aren’t already familiar with the characters and events of The Witcher books and games. However, all that dense backstory does seem to be encouraging some fans to dive back into The Witcher 3 or explore it for the first time.
As of December 23, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the 14th most played game on Steam, according to Valve’s own statistics. The game eclipsed 50,000 concurrent players Steam alone, which is far from the more than 600,000 players that the chart-topping Counter-Strike: Global Offensive regularly achieves, but not bad for a four year old game with no multiplayer component. That’s not even counting players on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or on The Witcher 3’s recent Switch port.
With all the attention being paid to The Witcher right now, it’s no surprise that there’s going to be more to come for the series in the near future. Netflix announced a second season of The Witcher even before the first season premiered, showing just how confident the company is in its new fantasy series. Plenty of recurring cast members are expected to return, along with new actors in roles that will only enter into the story in season 2. It’ll be a long wait to see Geralt and the rest of the crew in action again, though, as the second season isn’t set to air until 2021. On an even longer timeline, it’s likely that The Witcher 3 isn’t the end of the series in video game form. CD Projekt Red and The Witcher creator Andrezej Sapkowski recently reached a licensing deal to keep video game rights for the series with the developer.
For fans of The Witcher 3, it seems like the new show sparked their interest in Geralt’s story once again, no matter what they felt about Netflix’s adaptation. Given its spectacular sword fights and deep dives into the world of The Witcher, it seems like the show will prompt plenty of players to spend their holidays with Geralt this year.
Source: Steam