An Avengers movie is hitting theaters real soon, and you’re just settling down to play your brand new copy of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. No, it’s not 2015 again; it’s 2026, and while we won’t know just how well that new Avengers movie will do for a few more months, we can already tell people are flocking back to The Witcher 3 for its remaster.
The Witcher 3 Remastered Is Already Setting Records
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered released on all the latest platforms at 6 am EST this morning, and it seems like even if you weren’t ready and raring to go first thing, you’re firing up the better-looking version of one of the greatest games ever made as soon as you wake up. That’s certainly what the remaster’s Steam numbers would suggest anyway.
Within two hours of the remaster’s release, there were more people playing it at the same time than there were at any point on the original game’s release day on Steam. The Witcher 3 peaked at 92,268 players on release day according to SteamDB. By 8 am today, the remaster had hit 97,842.
It needed to push a little harder to break the 2015 Game of the Year’s all-time peak, though. The previous record was set almost five years after the game launched, hitting a CCU of 103,329. That peak coincided with the arrival of season one of The Witcher on Netflix. The game’s player count spiked during season two as well, although nothing of note for seasons three and four as popularity in the show has trailed off.
The Witcher 3’s new concurrent player count record on Steam is 107,349, breaking a record the game has held for more than five years. It took a little more than three hours to set the new milestone, and I can’t imagine the game is done yet with so many people playing the remaster during what are very much not peak gaming hours.
That Player Count Is Only Going To Keep Going Up
That count is only going to keep rising throughout the day as more people wake up, and then spike again when those of us working – who weren’t savvy enough to book the day off – clock out and fire it up. There’s also a chance that the player count surges to even higher heights over the weekend. That’s what tends to happen with new releases, as even more people are free to log in and start playing.
It is perhaps unsurprising that so many people are returning to The Witcher 3 today not just because of its status among the best games of all time, but because if you already own the base game, regardless of platform, the remaster upgrade is completely free. It really does sound like it somehow makes The Witcher 3 even better without compromising what made the original so special, as the remaster’s review scores are even better than the base game’s and the highest of the year so far.