Cyberpunk fails to increase player count with 1.5 update

Three months have passed since Cyberpunk's biggest update and the player count is back to the numbers before the update. Is there any hope on the horizon?

With the release of the Cyberpunk 1.5 update, which included many bug fixes, enhanced NPC behavior, improved driving, next-gen optimization, and much more, the game felt the spotlight for the first time since the premiere. 

Many older players returned to the game to test the improvements, and for the first time since January 2021, a month after the release, the game had 50 thousand concurrent players playing the game. That was more than double the previous month, and there was an optimism that this would be the patch that would turn things around for Cyberpunk 2077.

However, three months in, the player count according to Steam charts is back to was it was before the update. 

February, when the update was released, had 59 thousand peak players, which dropped to 35 thousand in March, and to 23 thousand in April, which matched the pre-update January number of 27 thousand peak players.

The average player count also returned to January figures, from having 22 thousand in February to just 12.8 thousand for the last 30 days.

Reddit user iambolo Amazing graphics are not enough to bridge the gameplay gap

Understandably, even update numbers weren't impressive for a game that had 830 thousand peak players, but it did provide the tiny hope that things could turn around finally for CD Project Red

The one thing that CD Project Red has going for them is the activity both on Discord and Reddit among the people who stuck with the game. 

Topics and threads are alive and discussions are ongoing regularly which projects the feeling of a much larger player base, as most people currently playing are heavily engaged in the game.

As for the future of the game, CD Project Red announced on Twitter that they are working on an expansion that would use the same engine as the original game, and they are dedicated to adding new content and improving the overall experience for the player base still hooked to the game. 

The exact date and details are yet to be disclosed.