Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty has performed just as well as The Witcher 3's DLC offerings despite being released years after the base game.
In an article by Forbes, writer Paul Tassi reports on Cyberpunk 2077's attach rate and compares it to CD Projekt Red's other successful game, The Witcher 3. In the story, Tassi takes Phantom Liberty's recently revealed five million sales and theorizes that the DLC must have an attach rate of around 20%.
If you don't know, the 'attach rate' demonstrates the number of people who purchased a product and then went on to buy the secondary product linked to it, in this case, Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty. As it turns out, Tassi wasn't too far off with the RPG's attach rate, as demonstrated by CD Projekt Red's co-CEO, Michał Nowakowski, who has taken to Twitter to give the official figures.
TBH, the decision to go through with the expansion so long after launch of the single player game was a bit counterintuitive. But what happened is a proof to us that solid content that people are happy with is the way to go. (2/2)January 8, 2024
Nowakowski explains that three months after the release of both The Witcher 3 Heart of Stone and The Witcher 3 Blood and Wine, the two DLCs' attach rates "were at 22% and 24%". This makes a lot of sense considering the first of the two expansions was released a few months after the main RPG and the second just a year later than the base game.
What's interesting is that, according to Nowakowski, Phantom Liberty managed to land "between these values" in the same 3 - 4 month window after the DLC's release. Unlike The Witcher 3, CDPR didn't launch the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion until almost a full three years after release - which isn't when you'd usually expect to see a game's DLC.
This worked out in the studio's favor though, as it gave CD Projekt Red time to win players back after Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous initial launch. "The decision to go through with the expansion so long after [the] launch of the single-player game was a bit counterintuitive," the developer adds in a follow-up tweet. "But what happened is proof to us that solid content that people are happy with is the way to go."
Still unsure about trying out the DLC? Take a look at our Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty review.
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