2019 was an incredible year for CD Projekt RED, especially with regards to The Witcher 3. In addition to Geralt’s final adventure launching on the Nintendo Switch, it also raked in more sales than any other year, barring its launch year in 2015. This is thanks in large part to the immense popularity of Netflix’s live-action The Witcher series. All in all, such growth has resulted in the title’s sales number rising to a whopping 28 million.
Thanks to Twitter DarkDetectiveNL’s number crunching, we now know The Witcher 3’s sales sit at approximately 28.3 million. The following Twitter post provides a convenient breakdown, showing PC as the title’s best-selling platform at over 12 million units sold. PlayStation 4 comes in at second place, with sales of The Witcher 3 on Sony’s platform closing in on 11 million copies. Sales on Xbox One are at a distant third with just over 4 million. Finally, sales on the Switch sit at a rather impressive 700,00.
Sales of #TheWitcher3 by hardware platform (units sold)
Pixel counting from this graph gives rough results per platform:
PC: ~12.4m#PS4: ~10.8m#XboxOne: ~4.3m#NintendoSwitch: ~0.7m
Total: ~28.3m pic.twitter.com/RkQUtYsxzg
— Nathan (@DarkDetectiveNL) April 8, 2020
These numbers were derived from CD Projekt RED’s recent “management board report” for company’s performance in 2019. Page 51 of the report features a chart that outlines The Witcher 3’s overall sales since launch in 2015. During 2015, the title sold roughly nine million units. 71 percent of those copies were through physical distribution; the remaining 29 percent were through digital sales.
Last year saw the RPG shift more than six million copies. Only 18 percent were physical sales, while digital distribution counted for the other 82 percent. Such a quick transition between the dominance of physical and digital sales represents an interesting look at what the future undoubtedly entails.
See the chart in question in the screenshot below:
CD Projekt’s next adventure, Cyberpunk 2077, releases later in the year on September 17th for the PS4, PC, and Xbox One. Once it hits store, the team will begin work on another Witcher installment.
[Source: CD Projekt RED, DarkDetectiveNL on Twitter]
