After four years, work on Cyberpunk 2077 has officially come to an end. Developer CD Projekt Red’s latest financial report confirmed that no one from their team is currently working on the game, marking the first time this has been the case since the game’s launch. Released amidst the COVID pandemic, Cyberpunk 2077 soon became a beloved title thanks to its neon-infused world and edgy characters that no doubt provided comfort to many gamers during isolated times.
The game’s launch wasn’t easy, however. Riddled with bugs and glitches, Cyberpunk 2077 was released in such a poor state that Sony had to pull the game from its store while Xbox offered refunds to players. How, then, did the game go on to earn the respect of its fans? In light of work ending on Cyberpunk 2077, it’s time to track the game’s redemption via its performance on live-streaming platforms.
Cyberpunk 2077 Overcomes a Rocky Launch to Last Three and a Half Years
When Cyberpunk 2077 was released on the 10th of December 2020, it had the attention of a vast majority of the gaming community. Thanks to a hyped-up trailer featuring Keanu Reeves, and his corresponding announcement of the trailer at E3 2019, fans sensed CD Projekt Red’s faith in the game. Thanks to this, Cyberpunk 2077 had a phenomenal release on live-streaming platforms with 74M hours watched in December 2020. However, this excitement was tempered by the aforementioned performance issues, and viewership for the game quickly dropped over the coming months.
CD Projekt Red took crucial steps to recover Cyberpunk 2077’s reputation. In February 2022, following the end of the pandemic, a next-gen update was released that overhauled the game and completely rectified the earlier bugs. Creators in-the-know flocked back, bumping viewership up to 1.1M hours watched. But the game’s true revival came in September 2022, when the Netflix anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners premiered. A new wave of interest flooded the community due to this transmedia marketing, driving viewership up to 2.3M hours watched. Finally, Cyberpunk 2077 proved that it had rebounded with the release of its Phantom Liberty DLC, which saw the highest viewership for the game since its initial launch: 14.2M hours watched in September 2023.
On the 29th of May 2024, the day after the news was announced of work ceasing on Cyberpunk 2077, viewership sunk to a low of just 16.4K. With no new content on the horizon, players are pulling back. But CD Projekt Red is already known to be working on a sequel, codenamed Project Orion. With the first game, the Netflix series, and now a sequel, Cyberpunk has become a full-fledged franchise. Stream Hatchet will track this sequel’s release to see if it can surpass the popularity of the original title.
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