Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty sold three million copies in one week

CD Projekt Red parent company CD Projekt is taking a well-earned victory lap with some celebratory sales numbers following the release of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. In just one week, the company sold three million copies of the $30 DLC package, which debuted with a major "2.0" update to the original game that added further fixes and quality-of-life improvements to the initially bug-filled title.

The news came during an "investor day" livestream broadcast, with key metrics from the presentation shared on social media. 68 percent of Phantom Liberty's sales were made on PC, with 20 percent landing on PlayStation 5, and 13 percent on Xbox Series X|S.

The company also revealed that Cyberpunk 2077 has sold over 25 million copies since its fumbled launch in 2020.

Glancing back at the company's financial reports, that means the company has sold another 5 million copies of the game since June 2022. Later that year the game would be the driving force for CD Projekt's "best-ever third quarter."

Cyberpunk 2077 is now a reliable revenue generator

CD Projekt's successful turnaround of Cyberpunk 2077 goes beyond redeeming a launch so rough that Sony removed the game from the PlayStation store.

The company's business model has evolved to one where its massive open-world RPGs are engineered to have an incredibly long tail for sales, particularly in the wake of successful media adaptations of its games on Netflix or next-generation updates.

Netflix's animated Cyberpunk 2077 prequel won't be the last adaptation of the game either. The company also announced today that it is partnering with production company Anonymous Content to develop a live-action project set in the world of the game.

If the company had given up on Cyberpunk 2077, or only committed to getting the game stabilized to return to the store, it would not have been able to turn it into a long-running revenue engine.

In 2021 joint-CEO Adam Kicinski made the case for maintaining this business strategy in an interview with Reuters.

Today's results validate his statements from that period.