CD Projekt Red estimates Cyberpunk 2077 has sold over 13 million copies, despite being a potato on consoles

After a week of refunds, apologies and fixes, CD Projekt Red announced yesterday that its open-world sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077 However, it has sold over 13 million copies in total since its release on December 10. This despite the disappointing performance of the game on the latest generation consoles and some low-end PCs, as well as working conditions fueled by overtime who went into doing it.

“[CDPR] hereby announces that, based on reports obtained from digital distribution platforms and data collected from physical distributors, it estimates that as of December 20 inclusive, gamers have purchased over 13 million copies Cyberpunk 2077, ”the company wrote in a statement to investors. “This figure represents the estimated volume of retail sales across all hardware platforms (taking into account returns submitted by retail customers in physical and digital storefronts), i.e. detail, minus all reimbursement requests e-sent directly to the company prior to the publication date of this report as part of the “Help me reimburse” campaign. “

Close readers will recognize some apparent caveats in this announcement, the most important of which is that the 13 million number appears to be an estimate rather than based strictly on existing sales data. The release also says it represents total sales minus all requested refunds, but it is not clear whether this reflects the bulk of all refunds or just those retailers have had time to report so far. . The CDPR did not immediately respond to a request for comment to clarify its remarks.

CDPR first apologized for the state of the game on December 14, suggesting anyone disappointed to find out how Cyberpunk 2077 played could get a refund. It turned out to be difficult, however, since Sony and Microsoft’s digital storefronts do not necessarily provide reimbursement for games already played. Before December 17, Sony had completely removed the game from its PlayStation Store, guaranteeing refunds at all levels. This no questions asked refund option quickly expanded to Microsoft’s platform, followed by CDPR itself and even retailers like Best Buy. Earlier this week, Kotaku reported that even GameStop stores we said to reimburse Cyberpunk 2077 customers, even if they had already opened and played the game.

In this context, 13 million does not sound bad at all for a game whose deployment The New York Times recently called “One of the most visible disasters in the history of video games.” Just before the game’s release, CDPR announced that it had been pre-ordered on 8 million times, and Dec. 11 reported that pre-orders alone had already allowed him to reach the breakeven point on the development and marketing costs of the game. Five million more in sales since the launch of a game whose litany of problems has gone viral and whose console version is currently below a 60 on Metacritic is more than what most games will ever sell. In comparison, it took Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order several months to reach 10 million copies sold.

Still, that’s apparently not as many sales as shareholders were hoping for. Bloomberg reports as CDPR’s stock fell 3.7% on the news, down 42% from where it peaked earlier in the month.