On May 27, CD Projekt Red announced a new expansion for The Witcher 3 called Songs of the Past, causing tremendous excitement among fans of this classic action RPG. So much so that, on May 29, just two days later, the game experienced its highest peak of players in many months, reaching the staggering figure of 29,166 simultaneous players. Spectacular numbers for any single-player game, but even more so for one that is not a new release.
The Witcher never goes out of style
According to Alox, a fan of CD Projekt, this is the highest peak of active players in The Witcher 3 since February 2022. And there was a good reason for that. The game was part of the Steam Lunar Sale and had a discount that brought it down to just $7.99, causing many people to buy it for the first time, at least on PC.
The correlation between strong discounts and an increased flow of players is something that has been studied and proven, but so is the announcement of new content. It is not necessary for that new content to be released for players to decide to return to play, drawn by curiosity and the desire to enjoy a game they already know they like and want to remember, taking advantage of the hype that this kind of news generates.
Although Songs of the Past does not have a release date yet, we know it will be released in 2027 and that we will have more news about it before the end of this summer. With CD Projekt describing this expansion as “a journey through Geralt’s memory,” it all points to it being a way to establish the franchise ahead of The Witcher 4, where we will change protagonists: the game will be led by Ciri, Geralt of Rivia’s daughter. Therefore, while we will have to wait, it seems that fans have already found a way to ease the wait: replaying the complete game.
