SuperData Research has published its worldwide digital games market report for December 2020, which reveals that CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077 experienced the biggest digital video game launch ever.
Although SuperData’s figures do not account for refunds, the company claims its data suggests that refunds “did not substantially affect the game’s aggregate sales.” Bearing this in mind, Cyberpunk 2077 sold an estimated 10.2 million digital copies during the launch month across all platforms.
SuperData credits CD Projekt RED’s marketing campaign and past reputation from its work on The Witcher franchise for creating the hype that led to immediate results. It also helps that 80 percent of Cyberpunk 2077‘s digital sales came from PC, which is the only platform that received review codes prior to release and where the game earned high praise. That said, SuperData joined a growing number of analysts who have expressed concerns about CD Projekt RED’s damaged reputation, and its impact on long-term financial success.
“Regardless of the short-term financial success, the critical backlash means the developer will now have to invest significant resources fixing the game in order to rehabilitate its image before the launch of its next title,” wrote SuperData.
Interestingly, players have been reporting to VICE that despite receiving refunds from CD Projekt RED for their digital and physical versions of Cyberpunk 2077, they have been allowed to keep their copies of the game, so it’s unclear how much of the sales figures translate to revenue. Nevertheless, the financial damage caused by Cyberpunk 2077 is outweighed by the loss of goodwill.
[Source: SuperData]
