Witcher 2 sales are nearly 1 million

By Robert Purchese Published 30 August, 2011

Takes PC RPG two months.

Fantastic PC role-playing game The Witcher 2 has sold nearly 1 million copies, according to a new report.

The number recorded by developer CD Projekt was 940,00 sales for the first half of 2011, according to the Warsaw Business Journal (via Gamasutra).

Of those sales, 200,000 were digitally distributed copies of The Witcher 2.

The Witcher 2 was released in May, which means those sales were amassed in under two months.

The Witcher 1 took a year to sell over 1 million sales.

The Witcher 2 is regarded as one of the finest role-playing games in recent years. An Xbox 360 version is planned for Q1 2012.

"Fans of RPGs should consider The Witcher 2 a must-buy," wrote Quintin Smith in Eurogamer's Witcher 2 review.

"There's simply no competitor that can touch it in terms of poise, characterisation and storytelling, or the way in which it treats you not as a player - someone to be pandered to and pleased - but as an adult, free to make your own mistakes and suffer a plot in which not everyone gets what they deserve."

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (44) Latest comment 9 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kingz #1 9 months ago

    Amazing games, truly deserves the success it gets and I hope it receives more to come.

  • midnight_walker #2 9 months ago

    Good, I'm glad! Just picked this up a couple of weeks ago after treating myself to an Alienware laptop, having being out of PC gaming pretty much since Witcher 1 came out, which I loved. Have to say it thoroughly deserves every inch of praise; it's without question the best RPG in years.

  • Daeltaja #3 9 months ago

    Well deserved. No doubt the console versions (expecting PS3 at some stage!) will add another large chunk to that.

    None the less, impressive sales figures for PC only.

  • cianchristopher #4 9 months ago

    I don't think it's that amazing - the combat system is atrocious, and given how much combat the game has, that's kind of a bad point, no?

    I'd lean more towards Edge's 6/10 than EG's 9/10 on this one. Especially given that Quintin is a well-known PC enthusiast (and blogger for RPS), and thus quite likely to be more forgiving towards AAA Exclusives* appearing on his system of choice.

    *although it's coming to the 360, it was exclusive at the time the review was published.

  • PenguinJim #5 9 months ago

    "Of those sales, 200,000 were digitally downloaded copies of The Witcher 2."

    So how many analogue download copies were sold, Rob?

  • StooMonster #6 9 months ago

    Surprised that 'only' 21% of PC sales were digital downloads, which means those retailers still really have some clout.

  • glottis0 #7 9 months ago

    @cianchristopher - The combat is far from atrocious (especially after patch 1.1 which made everything more responsive) - it's quite different from other games, and so at first can be frustrating and punishing. But once it 'clicked' I found it really rewarding and fun.

  • bad09 #8 9 months ago

    Good for CD Projekt. I almost feel guilty I've not supported such a brilliant company with the best attitude to DRM in the industry but my current hardware is not up to the Witcher 2 sadly. Next year though I'm all over it!

  • anomagnus #9 9 months ago

    It was a good game, but in no way as good as the review made it sound, In particular, the statements about how the towns and city's were living breathing places. They really weren't. The combat started tough, then got appallingly easy once you spec into swordsman, which, normally, you'd think it would be the other way around.

    And finally the ending. Only Deus Ex: HR has let me down more in an ending this year. The incredible leaps of logic geralt uses are... surprising. And to find out what the wild hunt was. I mean rampaging space elves?! come on.

    Now, in the interests of fairness, both games i just mentioned have also been fantastic games, i've loved them both on PC, but if there is going to be a standout RPG this year, i expect it to be Skyrim.
    Edited by anomagnus at 30/08/11 @ 14:04

  • SilentTristero #10 9 months ago

    I imagine the disparity in sales was largely down to the high calibre of the physical product, in this case.

  • frunk #11 9 months ago

    Piracy is killing PC games... that is why you need layers of DRM on PC titles to protect them in case they get pirated and copied between friends, it is why Witcher 2 has sold so well...

    ... er... whatdaymean it has no copy protection... whatdyamean you can install it on as many PCs as you want... it will never sell it will get pirated...

    1 million copies you say... er... are you saying gamers might be honest if they are not treated like criminals from the start?

    Impossible!

  • Timbercottage #12 9 months ago

    I'd love to see some piracy stats about this game too. If they're low it proves that DRM is more of an incentive to pirate than a deterrent.

    DRM is killing the PC games industry, not piracy.

  • Xardan #13 9 months ago

    ^Do you genuinely believe that? How on earth can DRM have more of an effect on PC sales than piracy? Sounds like you are trying to justify a reason to pirate. I wonder how many times it has been pirated so far. Still a steady 2k downloading from torrent sites, and it has been like that since its release...
    Edited by Xardan at 30/08/11 @ 14:21

  • CaptainKid #14 9 months ago

    Only 200.000 downloads of a 940.000 total is very surprising to me.

    Especially since a friend of mine who was interested in this game couldn't find it in a real (non gaming) shop like Dixons, Intertoys etc.

  • bobfish09 #15 9 months ago

    I wonder how much it cost to make. 1 million units sold, isn't enough to make a profit on most games these days.

  • jetsetwillie #16 9 months ago

    @Xarden

    exactly.

    if the PC community wanted to make a point against DRM then the really good games that are out. should have little to know piracy at all. but as you say that is not the case.



  • Bravestinsane #17 9 months ago

    Wait whats this...

    DRM was removed from the game and people didn't pirate it and actually bought it?

    Yeh, 1million, you deserve it CDproject, was a Day 1 impulse buy for me after seeing all the reviews, and i don't regret it one bit amazing game.

  • bikmate #18 9 months ago

    Even if you know that lets say the game was pirated 312 546 times, you don't know how many of those pirates purchased it. Maybe every one of them did, which then makes the piracy argument moot. Unfortunately you can't verify that.
    Edited by bikmate at 30/08/11 @ 14:57

  • Vortextk #19 9 months ago

    They absolutely deserve it.

  • Timbercottage #20 9 months ago

    @Xardan

    Ok, crap DRM is killing the PC games industry. DRM which gives players a worse experience than pirating it is clearly not the way to go. Want to stop piracy? Take all the money you're spending on developing and maintaining awful DRM systems and put it into awesome customer service, awesome player experience, free DLC and post-release content or simply treating us with a modicum of respect.

    There will always be people who pirate just because they can, you'll never get rid of them, the sooner they understand that fact, the sooner they'll stop shitting on all of their genuine customers with terrible, restrictive DRM systems that are just fuelling the piracy fire.
    Edited by Timbercottage at 30/08/11 @ 15:20

  • gregski #21 9 months ago

    One of the finest RPGs of last few years deserves some fine sales numbers!

    Plus, 100 pirated units doesn't mean 100 units NOT SOLD & lost. It usually means that those 100 units would not sell anyway.

    I just hope their honest attitude towards us gamers pays off, so some people that pirated the game this time will buy the next installment.
    Edited by gregski at 30/08/11 @ 15:28

  • Seoh #22 9 months ago

    Looking forward to a second playthrough and "dark mode" very soon

  • anomagnus #23 9 months ago

    I see the 'you can't be negative about the witcher' brigade is out in force...

    Laughable.

  • apoc_reg #24 9 months ago

    Thats good but deserves WAY MORE!

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #25 9 months ago

    DRM has never stopped a game from being cracked and pirated.

    People who pirate a game, are unlikely to have bought it. They're tightwads and usually download so much stuff that they wouldn't have been able to afford it all.

    Honest people buy their games (Witcher 2, Minecraft). Especially when they're treated well - no DRM, good value, ease of purchase, free updates etc.

    Honest people may be persuaded to pirate when they're treated like fucking criminals (From Dust).

    Edited by SpaceMidget75 at 30/08/11 @ 16:13

  • Seafort #26 9 months ago

    @bobfish09 I think cdprojekt said it cost around $10 million to develop witcher 2.

    So they didnt really need to sell that many to break even unlike the bigger AAA publishers which need 4-5 million copies sold to break even.

    It proves that you don't need AAA financing to create a AAA game. It all goes on marketing and paying these "rock star" devs way too much money for what the witcher devs have done twice now on 5-10 times less money.

  • Dannyboy1100 #27 9 months ago

    How does a game like this under sell dragon age 2?

  • Machiavellian #28 9 months ago

    Ok, crap DRM is killing the PC games industry. DRM which gives players a worse experience than pirating it is clearly not the way to go. Want to stop piracy? Take all the money you're spending on developing and maintaining awful DRM systems and put it into awesome customer service, awesome player experience, free DLC and post-release content or simply treating us with a modicum of respect.


    Crap DRM is not killing PC gaming, it's PC gamers. The fact that PC gamers still continue to believe that Piracy especially today's piracy isn't hurting PC gaming always amazes me. I am not in favor of DRM but sometimes I do believe PC gamers get what they deserve. This entitlement mindset where they believe developers need to give them the shirt off their back in order for them to purchase their games is what is also hurting PC gaming.

    The problem is that legit purchase is becoming less common because piracy is getting so easy your mother can do it and some do. When have an awesome experience stop piracy, instead those same people are telling their friends how awesome the game is and they do what their friend does, pirate the game.

    There will always be people who pirate just because they can, you'll never get rid of them, the sooner they understand that fact, the sooner they'll stop shitting on all of their genuine customers with terrible, restrictive DRM systems that are just fuelling the piracy fire.

    Nothing fuels piracy than your own greed. In other words, if you did not like a particular DRM on a product, then do not purchase it. It' pretty much that simple. Nothing forces someone to steal another product besides whatever excuse they use to steal it. This entitlement crap that gamers use when something is not done to their specification is the root cause of the problem more than anything else but gamers always love to blame others instead of their own greed. "Oh, I pirated the game because of the DRM". "I pirated the game because of no multiplayer", "Oh, I pirated the game because I have no money".

    I have heard them all and in the end it's still the same tired excuses. People steal because they can and more people are stealing because it's easy. The more popular a game is, the more people will download the game instead of purchase. The tired excuse of that people who download the game would never purchase it is just that a tired excuse. Back in the day when Piracy was very low, if you wanted a game you SAVED for it. Now, people have the tired excuse of "Oh, I downloaded the game to try it out first before purchase". I would love to see the percentage of people who actually download a game and then go out and purchase it.


  • Platinum_2011 #29 9 months ago

    @Dannyboy1100

    It didn't. Dragon Age 2 sold slighty more than 2k but it was on all 3 platforms (PC, PS3, and Xbox360) combined.

  • nemesisND1derboy #30 9 months ago

    @Dannyboy1100

    Through marketing and a multiplatform release. Unfortunately for The Witcher 2, it didn't receive a massive marketing push, which it should have. I went from Dragon Age 2 to the Witcher 2 and never went back. I wonder how many more it would have sold if it was multiplatform from the start like Dragon Age 2?

    I'm glad it's coming to the 360 and hopefully the PS3 in the future so more people can experience one of the best RPG's this generation. Such a quality game.

    The post release support CD Projekt has shown is fantastic too. It's a lesson for developers to learn on how to treat your fanbase. Support it with free DLC, constant updates reflecting what the community want and don't force DRM on the legitimate paying customer.

    CDP deserves all the praise it gets, as does The Witcher 2.

  • Machiavellian #31 9 months ago

    The post release support CD Projekt has shown is fantastic too. It's a lesson for developers to learn on how to treat your fanbase. Support it with free DLC, constant updates reflecting what the community want and don't force DRM on the legitimate paying customer.

    Just because the DLC is free for the gamer doesn't mean it's free for the developer including constant updates. It's not something developers need to learn, it's weather or not they have the resources to do it. Nothing is free, someone is paying and if a developer has a small staff, sometimes they do not have the resource to give away content.

    On another point it's also a risk for the developer to give away free DLC. The risk is that once you go free, you cannot go to a paid DLC content because then gamers feel betrayed. So if you have your developers really put in some quality time on DLC where the content is good enough to sell, you will get the backlash. There is nothing wrong with doing free or paid content gamers just need to know that such content isn't free on the developer end so if they ask for money for the content, gamers shouldn't cop an attitude.

  • Belmonth #32 9 months ago

    some1 said how can a game like this undersell Dragon Age2 . Its simple, it was PC only and just 2 months, give it time and wait for xbox then we can count.
    Anyway whats important is that this shows PC Gaming aint freakin dead, and i hope publishers see this news. 1 Million for just the pc version is fantastic succes. Maybe they should think more next time when they go for just ps3/xbox. Nobody is asking for PC centric games, a decent port can sufice.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #33 9 months ago

    "Back in the day when Piracy was very low,"

    Heh, when was this mythical day?

    The only systems you could say were piracy free* were the cartridge based consoles, and of course we all remember how good sales were on those systems compared to other pirated systems like the PS1, PS2, Amiga, Spectrum don't we?.... Don't we? You know... when all those millions of pirates saved up and bought the games on the SNES and MD.

    Honestly, you look at the biggest selling games of all time and there really is no difference between systems that have piracy and no piracy. (Factoring in userbase, quality of game and size of library obviously)

    No one is saying piracy is wrong, but it definately doesn't affect sales as much as some think, and that's the bit the publishers care about - not the moral aspect.


    * unless you had one of these
    Edited by SpaceMidget75 at 30/08/11 @ 17:16

  • coomber #34 9 months ago

    Can't wait for next year. Hopefully with all this cash rolling in, they can finally port the first game to consoles as well.

  • WinterMute78 #35 9 months ago

    I can't wait for this on xbox as I'm not a PC gamer at all but is 940.000 alot of sales for a Pc game ? Seems kinda low to me especially for a game that looks as good as this one does !

  • Seafort #36 9 months ago

    I'm just wondering if this included all digital sales or just those they could get from GOG. As i know steam doesnt give out any sales data. I wonder if the other digital stores like D2D and gamersgate etc are included?

  • CaptainKid #37 9 months ago

    @Seafort
    Excellent point!
    Steam doesn't give sales figures as far as I'm aware and this game IS available on Steam (the biggest donwload distributor) so no wonder the download numbers are so low.

    This is why I can't stand sales figure news items, you always get wrong numbers and never know which numbers are actually counted.

  • Machiavellian #38 9 months ago

    "Back in the day when Piracy was very low,"

    Heh, when was this mythical day?

    How old are you. I guess if you think everyone that plays games are in their twenties or younger than you would have this mindset. I am 41 years old so i have a lot of gaming history under my belt.

    No one is saying piracy is wrong, but it definately doesn't affect sales as much as some think, and that's the bit the publishers care about - not the moral aspect.

    This is always the narrow point of view of most gamers like yourself. Gamers only see today and never looked at the past or the future. Why piracy has such big effect on games is that it becomes habit. It becomes the norm instead of the basement. It fuels the younger generation to think it's acceptable because everyone else does it. It leads to more piracy and raises a generation on excepting piracy as a means instead of what it is, Stealing.

    It give people like you another excuse to dismiss it and ignore how it is ruining PC gaming. It's the reason why a lot of games are developed console first and PC last. It is what PC gamers will get when they continue to ignore the problem until it eats them from the inside and destroy what they love.
    Edited by Machiavellian at 30/08/11 @ 20:08

  • MMMMMM7 #39 9 months ago

    A fantastic game with no DRM and great support with free DLCs.
    We should support such companies and buy their games to help
    them be able to create other such quality games in the future.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #40 9 months ago

    "How old are you. I guess if you think everyone that plays games are in their twenties or younger than you would have this mindset. I am 41 years old so i have a lot of gaming history under my belt."

    I'm 36 years old (The 75 in the gamertag gives it away). My gaming history includes loads of kids at school copying Speccy games on C90 tapes as well as, you know, going out and buying some too. Pretty much the same thing with the Amiga.

    I'll hold my hands up, Speccy contraband passed my hands when I was 10! (And I BET it did yours too)

    It was just as bad then as it is now. Get the rose tinted specs off.

    No one is condoning piracy, all people were saying is that a DRM free bit of software sells very well. The piracy would have a negligible effect on sales. Talk about go off on a tagent.

    Do you think I would have bought those 20 games on one tape if I hadn't been given them? 20 pirated games does not equal 20 lost sales - that's all. It was the same in 1985 and it's the same now.
    Edited by SpaceMidget75 at 30/08/11 @ 19:45

  • Machiavellian #41 9 months ago

    I'm 36 years old (The 75 in the gamertag gives it away). My gaming history includes loads of kids at school copying Speccy games on C90 tapes as well as, you know, going out and buying some too. Pretty much the same thing with the Amiga.

    My experience was different, Copying was still the avenue of people who searched out that info instead of having it pretty much given to them. In other words a bunch of friends copying a game is nothing like millions getting the same game where it takes nothing more than downloading the game on torrent.

    Even when BBS had ways of getting games it was still a chore to do so only the committed really put in the effort because simple DRM like pages within the manual or using some device to decipher a random page etc. Hell, it was a chore to do it when you used usernet where you have to find all the missing pieces of a file, combine them, install them, then use the crack etc. The percentages of piracy was still pretty low and manageable. People who still wanted a game still SAVED for it more than they would go through all those different avenues to get a game. Now, it's so simple to pirate a game, that the incentive is getting less and less for people to do a real purchase and with kids growing up believing download first pay if the pirated version is broken makes the situation even worst.

    I have no rose colored glasses because I have used just about every excuse to pirate back in the day and now that I am older I understand that those were excuses. If I did not have a way to get a game for free, I just saved up for it. Most times I knew a game I wanted was coming so I saved for it. I teach my Son today to do the same thing with the little money he makes even though I know he knows how to pirate just like any kid his age.

    The point I am trying to make is that nothing fuels piracy more then the simple greed of a gamer. We can make all the excuses we want but in the end that's what they are excuses. If a product does not meet our specification than don't buy it. Don't play it and definitely do not download it because you are only showing the publishers you want their product not that DRM is making you pirate it. The way they see it is that they continue to need better DRM. It's like the war on drugs. People will always use drugs no matter how much money, laws or people put on the problem so why bother. The reason is that doing nothing feels worst then doing something ineffective, at least that is the mindset. So they will continue to do something until it stick.

  • darc #42 9 months ago

    Good to read this. I was very outspoken about how much I disliked the first Witcher, but I liked a lot of things *about* it. I'm really looking forward to playing Witcher 2, and I'm glad they're building on this success by making good on a 360 port (which I intend to buy.)

  • curtlikesmeat #43 9 months ago

    Great news - they deserve it and their DRM policy actually made me even more inclined to buy it. I ahve to say I agree with cianchristopher though in some ways - I find the combat to be not amazing. I loved the atmosphere and the story though (haven't got to the end yet). Also excellent soundtrack (which you get with the collectors edition, which was less than £25 even at PC World /spit).

  • gregski #44 9 months ago

    @redbarony

    Yeah, go try Dragon Age 2, no hack'n'slash, RPG at its finest, lol.