Elijah Gonzalez 
It seems that Geralt of Rivia has joined prestigious company. CD Projekt Red announced yesterday that their series The Witcher just passed 50 million units sold, landing it in the proximity of legendary gaming franchises like Metal Gear and The Elder Scrolls.
Adapted from Andrzej Sapkowski’s Polish novel of the same name, CD Projekt’s trilogy of games has steadily grown in popularity over the years. According to CD Projekt, the first game in the series sold around 1 million copies in its first year of release, while the second sold around 1.7 million over its first twelve months. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt sold 4 million copies after 2 weeks and as of last year it had sold a staggering 28.3 million copies. After a re-release on Switch and the debut of Netflix’s Witcher series, the game would sell more in 2019 than it had the previous year. But beyond re-releases and a Netflix show, the game’s steady sales can likely be attributed to its status as one of the most beloved titles of the previous decade.
The announcement of the series’ sales figures comes a few weeks after CD Projekt was deemed “Europe’s most valuable game company” by investors. According to Bloomberg, the company’s market capitalization was 6.8 billion as of last December, marking a 21,000% return over the last decade. This was the biggest rise out of any stock listed on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index over the same period.
In the wake of growing expectations, the studio looks to follow up on their previous hit with the release of the sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077. After many years of development, murmurs of brutal development crunch, and quite a few delays, the game is still slated for a September release despite the Coronavirus pandemic.
