It is no secret now the critical and commerical backlash that Cyberpunk 2077 had generated around its intial release. With a myriad of glitches and last-gen versions that straight up did not work, CD Projekt Red's highly-anticipated title sold amazingly, but crashed where it counted most. After a year of mostly small, and one large update, Cyberpunk 2077 has seemingly bounced back. In November, around Thanksgiving, it was reported that the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 had soared to the top of Steam's best sellers, bringing with it mostly positive reviews as well. That positivity has carried it through to the end of the year and helped it become one of Steam's best-selling and most-played game of 2021.
Valve recently released a deluge of information regarding what has sold well with Cyberpunk 2077 performing well. However, the title was not awarded Steam's coveted "Platinum" cut where games such as Grand Theft Auto 5 and DOTA 2 reside, but it has nestled itself comfortably in Steam's "Silver" tier. It should be noted that Steam's best-sellers list only comprises a game's revenue and not exactly amount of copies sold, though that apparently does factor in as well. Factors like DLC and microtransactions contribute to the revenue, which Cyberpunk 2077 currently does not play host to, making this an especially impressive win for the title.
Though CD Projekt Red managed to get much of Cyberpunk 2077's last-gen versions playable, they still need work. The team has been quietly working away on updates over 2021 and succeeded in delivering a number of them, but Cyberpunk 2077 is likely still not in a spot that CD Projekt Red is comfortable with.
CD Projekt Red also had a giant security breach in 2021 that saw game source code held for ransom by hackers. This no doubt effected the developer's work, slowing down production on updates. Though major DLC and next-gen versions were teased for this year, ultimately CD Projekt Red couldn't deliver, pushing both into 2022 and beyond. The next-gen verisons come first, so it is possible Cyberpunk's first major DLC won't launch until much later.
Elsewhere on Valve's best-sellers list was Battlefield 2042, selling well despite controversy around the title, and Amazon's surprise hit MMO New World also seems to be raking in the dough. All good news for these titles but it will remain to be seen how the quality of Cyberpunk 2077 stacks up in 2022. Hopefully, CD Projekt Red can come out the gate soaring with a quality next-gen version of Cyberpunk 2077 and its first DLC.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X versions also in development.