5 years after its release, Cyberpunk 2077 is making millions again. That's thanks to one risky decision
PlayStation Plus helped Cyberpunk 2077, even though CD Projekt admits that releasing games on this type of service doesn't affect sales well.
Subscriptions can hurt sales, but CD Projekt also sees some perks from being part of these offers.
Things like Xbox Game Pass have firmly established themselves in the gaming industry. However, even after so many years (Microsoft launched its "pass" in mid-2017), discussions about the profitability of such a solution—and its impact on the industry as a whole—are still ongoing.
CD Projekt jumped into the conversation, mentioning in their latest financial report how the success of Cyberpunk 2077 on PlayStation Plus boosted sales of the Phantom Liberty expansion. This is part of why the third quarter of the 2025 fiscal year saw a 53% increase in revenue compared to the same time in 2024, jumping from around 227 million PLN to 350 million PLN.
As noted by TweakTown, subscribers are willing to pay for a game expansion, even though the game may leave the offer during the next PS Plus catalog rotation. On one hand, this validates long-term subscriptions, and on the other, it indicates that in the future, CD Projekt can anticipate additional sales growth when these players choose to buy the base Cyberpunk 2077 to maintain access to Phantom Liberty.
Subscription and sales
What's interesting, CD Projekt Group also admitted that the presence of a game in a subscription service might negatively impact its sales. During the investor conference, someone asked about this, and Michal Nowakowski, the joint CEO of CD Projekt, confirmed that game sales always drop when the title becomes available on a subscription service.
However, as the quarterly results show, losing a bit of money is a small price to pay for all the other perks of adding a game to PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass. Nowakowski pointed not only to the boost in DLC sales but also highlighted how this decision has both short-term and long-term effects on Cyberpunk 2077's performance, leading to more sales than they would've had otherwise.
There's always a hit to current sales of the game when you launch on a subscription basis We launched the base game on PS Plus – without the expansion – however what should be taken into account when planning is that we do want to generate a surplus vs. what the game would normally at a given moment in time, and we believe we did that with this particular entry into subscription, and also created more opportunity to sell additional copies of the Phantom Liberty expansion within that timeframe. So, this is beneficial for the bottom line, for the Company and for long-term performance of CP77 as well.
It's been almost 5 years since Cyberpunk 2077 came out, and yet CD Projekt Red's game still gets people pretty excited. This is largely due to various actions by CD Projekt, which, after fixing the game, continued to release updates and sought ways to maintain interest in the franchise. Hence, the Cyberpunk Edgerunners series and the related DLC for Guilty Gear: Strive. The launch on PS Plus is another reminder of the brand's existence.
Equally important is the fact that, despite 5 years, many people still remember how poorly the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 went, especially on consoles. Some players might still be hesitant to buy this game, even if it's on sale, let alone with a big expansion pack.
It's a different story when a title is available in a service that the player already subscribes to, such as PlayStation Plus. This could also explain the huge increase in sales of Phantom Liberty. Subscribers got a chance to check out C2077 without any extra cost and decide if it's worth investing in once it leaves the PS+ lineup.
Of course, such moves are equally beneficial for the entire brand. This is particularly important given that both the continuation of Cyberpunk 2077 and the second season of the Cyberpunk Edgerunners series are on the way. In this situation, a drop in sales (which, let's be honest, probably wouldn't be huge after all these years and deals anyway) is a small price to pay for getting this universe more popular.
- Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4 is a Disaster. We Were Supposed to Burn City, not Consoles
- Cyberpunk 2077 Review - Samurai, You've Got a Great RPG to Play!
- Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - review
- Cyberpunk 2077 – Game Guide
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Author: Jacob Blazewicz
Graduated with a master's degree in Polish Studies from the University of Warsaw with a thesis dedicated to this very subject. Started his adventure with gamepressure.com in 2015, writing in the Newsroom and later also in the film and technology sections (also contributed to the Encyclopedia). Interested in video games (and not only video games) for years. He began with platform games and, to this day, remains a big fan of them (including Metroidvania). Also shows interest in card games (including paper), fighting games, soulslikes, and basically everything about games as such. Marvels at pixelated characters from games dating back to the time of the Game Boy (if not older).
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