Cyberpunk 2077 sold 8 million copies in preorders before its multi-platform launch on Thursday, Dec. 10, the developer announced, with the majority of those sales on PC.
PC accounts for most preorders
CD Projekt Red reported that 59% of the 8 million preorders were for PC and 41% for consoles, which means roughly 4.72 million copies were sold for PC before the game’s official release.
That PC figure surpasses the first-day sales record recently set by World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, which reached 3.7 million copies on its launch day.
Digital sales and margins
According to Gamepur, 74% of Cyberpunk 2077 copies were sold digitally. Digital distribution yields higher margins for the studio: profit on a physical copy is about 55%, while digital platform margins range from roughly 70% on Xbox, PlayStation and Steam stores to about 95% on GOG.
Development costs, delays and response to issues
CD Projekt Red spent US$135 million (R$682 million) on development through Sept. 30 for a project that began in 2016; this figure excludes marketing expenses. The game’s release was delayed three times, and the most recent postponement prompted death threats against developers.
Launch-day activity and post-release plans
On launch day, Steam recorded more than 1 million concurrent players of Cyberpunk 2077, setting a new peak for a title that does not include a multiplayer mode at release. Early reviews have been generally positive but include numerous reports of bugs and performance issues on both PC and consoles. CD Projekt Red said it is working on updates to address those problems.
