Thanks to the power of anime and Netflix, Cyberpunk 2077 has exited its flop era. The beleaguered game has soared in popularity on Steam following the release of developer CD Projekt Red and animation studio Trigger’s collaborative 10-part anime series, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
According to Eurogamer, Cyberpunk 2077’s concurrent player count peaked on September 16, reaching 37,000. This led to the sci-fi open-world RPG beating out the likes of Elden Ring, Grand Theft Auto V, and Destiny 2 on the Steam charts. As of yesterday, Cyberpunk 2077 hit 85,555 concurrent players, making it the second highest number of players the game has had since its buggy launch on PC and consoles in 2020, according to Steam DB.
Read More: Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Tells The Story I Wished For In Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077’s resurgence in popularity among its players coincides with the release of Edgerunners on Netflix on September 13. Since its debut, the anime has shot up as the number two ranked video game TV show on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100 percent average Tomatometer score and a 97 percent average audience score. Currently, Edgerunners is sandwiched between Netflix’s hit League of Legends show, Arcane, and Castlevania.
The show also received praise from Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the original, tabletop Cyberpunk role-playing game, in a post on the r/cyberpunkgame subreddit, saying “THEY FUCKING NAILED IT.”
“It’s like looking at my own brain. Been waiting for this for years,” Pondsmith said. “We’ve (at [R. Talsorian Games]) have been sitting on this for months now. Now you can see what we did.”
In Kotaku’s review of Edgerunners, I said Edgerunners was “Studio Trigger at its finest,” praising it for its “deliciously gory and gnarly fights” and its “emotionally resonant story” about how a poor street kid named David Martinez became a made man in Night City.
Read More: Cyberpunk 2077 Getting First Expansion Next Year, Keanu Reeves To Return
Preemptively striking before the metaphorical iron got hot, CD Projekt Red announced some quality-of-life and bug-fixing updates for 2077 during a Twitch stream two weeks ago. One announcement focused on its final “major” patch for last-gen consoles. In it, you’ll be able to equip a jacket and shotgun inspired by Edgerunners. The developer also announced Cyberpunk 2077’s first major expansion, Phantom Liberty, which will feature a returning V and Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Silverhand. Phantom Liberty is due to release sometime in 2023.