CD Projekt has deemed Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty a commercial success after revealing it hit similar numbers to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine.
Speaking to IGN, CD Projekt confirmed Phantom Liberty has an attach rate of approximately 23%, meaning 23% of players who bought the base Cyberpunk 2077 also bought the expansion. As revealed by co-CEO Michał Nowakowski on X/Twitter, The Witcher 3's Hearts of Stone expansion had a 22% attach rate and Blood and Wine had a 24% attach rate within three months of launch.
What propels Phantom Liberty even further, however, is its release around two years and nine months after the base Cyberpunk 2077 launched. Hearts of Stone arrived around five months after The Witcher 3 and Blood and Wine arrived around one year after, when downloadable content is traditionally released and general engagement is typically higher.
Obsidian Entertainment studio design director Josh Sawyer pointed this out on X/Twitter in November 2023, when CD Projekt revealed Phantom Liberty had sold 4.3 million copies with an attach rate of 20%, saying his studio hopes for around a 25% attach rate on DLC released within a few months, "so a 20% attach rate on an expansion two-and-a-half years after launch is pretty impressive".
This extended length of time between the base game and Phantom Liberty launching — sparked by CD Projekt having to address myriad issues that even saw Cyberpunk 2077 removed from the PlayStation Store after its initial release — seemingly caused the developer to question making the expansion at all.
"To be honest, the decision to go through with the expansion so long after launch of the single-player game was a bit counterintuitive," Nowakowski said in the post. "But what happened is proof to us that solid content that people are happy with is the way to go."
CD Projekt previously revealed Phantom Liberty sold more than five million copies in 2023 after it added a new area to Cyberpunk 2077's Night City and a spy thriller storyline starring Idris Elba upon its launch in September. The expansion was received very well by critics, with IGN giving it a 9/10 in our review.
The developer released the final major update for Cyberpunk 2077 in December 2023, essentially ending the game's three-year journey of active post-launch development. Attention at CD Projekt Red has now switched to its next projects, which include Cyberpunk 2077's sequel, codenamed Orion, and the next mainline Witcher game, codenamed Polaris.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
