The recent premiere of Netflix's series adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher has done good for CD Projekt Red's game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Since the series' launch, the game experienced a resurgence of players.
Valley of Plenty
The influx of players consists of new players trying the game out for the first time after watching The Witcher on Netflix, old fans who are returning to the game now, and other gamers who decided to give the game a second chance for its story.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which was first released in 2015, saw a spike in its player base in various platforms. On the PC platform Steam alone, steamcharts reports that The Witcher 3 had more than 94,000 concurrent users. That's more than the highest The Witcher 3 has enjoyed so far - 92,000 when it was first released. This number doesn't even include all PC gamers yet, as other PC platforms like GOG.com also has The Witcher 3 on the stock. The truer number might even be double than what Steam Charts is tracking, given that the game is also out on the PlayStation 4, the Xbox One, and, more recently, the Nintendo Switch.
Timeless Gameplay
The renewed interest on the franchise would have stopped at the counter had the game been uninteresting. Instead, The Witcher 3 managed to draw in new fans and keep them playing, which is why we see a lot of concurrent users.
Indeed, The Witcher 3 was a masterpiece in terms of design and gameplay, having won multiple "Game of the Year" awards from hundreds of sources. The almost five-year-old game continues to hold up to today's standards, so people don't feel like they're playing an outdated game. Two expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, further add to the freshness of the game by adding loads of content.
Other people are deeper into the Witcher rabbit hole than the others, leading them to play even the older (and outdated) The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.
The Adventures of Geralt of Rivia and Dandelion the Bard
The stories of the games, thankfully, are different from the ones adapted on the Netflix series. While the games were meant to continue the stories of the books - being set years past the last book of Sapkowski, the Netflix series (starring Henry Cavill as the titular Witcher) instead follows the books. The first season turns the books The Last Wish (1993) and Sword of Destiny (1992) into an engaging live-action series.
The books, which are written in the story by Geralt's poetic companion Dandelion (played by Joey Batey), follow the formative years of Geralt of Rivia, Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Charlota) and Princess Cirilla of Cintra (Freya Allen).
With season 2 already under production, fans of the series will have more of their beloved stories to come. In fact, series showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich revealed via an interview that she's planning to have as much as seven seasons for the series. That's highly realistic, given that The Witcher has eight books to draw inspiration from, and three games to adapt to the screen.
Accolades Magnet
Just like the books and the games before it, Netflix's The Witcher has been received favorably by many fans, in spite of some negative feedback from professional reviewers. Its performance is no doubt better than the ill-fated Polish TV Adaptation The Hexer (2002), directed by Marek Brodski.
The Witcher will continue garnering viewership as it moves on to a second season by 2021.
