Thanks To The TV Series, ‘The Witcher’ Has Seen A Massive Surge In Gameplay On Steam
The first season of the highly-anticipated epic fantasy series, The Witcher, dropped on Netflix late last week. Based on a series of books by Andrzej Sapkowski as well as the popular video games, the show has encouraged gamers to check out the game once more, according to IGN.
According to the gaming platform Steam, users playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt have risen significantly since the TV series premiered on Netflix on December 20. Prior to that, on average, this game saw approximately 13,000 inline players for the PC version. A small rise to 18,000 viewers was noticed initially when news of The Witcher was announced at San Diego Comic-Con in July. However, there is no confirmation that Comic-Con definitely caused the spike on Steam. Now, since the Netflix show dropped, the platform has reported that more than 50,000 users were playing The Witcher 3 on their platform over the weekend.
Not only is this a significant climb in players to the PC version of the game but it is a number that has not been seen in the platform since 2016. At that time, those numbers occurred because CD Projekt Red released Blood and Wine, a downloadable content (DLC) package for the game.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the actor who plays the main character of Geralt of Rivia was an avid gamer himself prior to getting the role. In fact, Henry Cavill was so desperate to win the role that he begged for an audition as soon as whispers started emerging regarding the TV adaptation, as he recently admitted.
Having played the game multiple times prior to auditioning, Cavill used this to his advantage in order to bring his own version of Geralt to life for Netflix.
“When I heard [voice actor] Doug Cockle’s incredible performance in Witcher 3 — which I’ve heard time after time because I’ve played the games a lot — I realized that I could utilize something like that, and create [Geralt’s] stony exterior,” Cavill previously told IGN.
While the TV series may be the reason why gamers are flocking to Steam, the fact that the platform is currently having a massive sale on the Witcher games might also be helping numbers. Currently, Steam is offering as much as 70 percent off the games, including a bundle of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Season 1 of The Witcher is currently streaming globally on Netflix. Season 2 has been confirmed by the platform but, as yet, no premiere date has been announced.
