Witcher 3 Remastered Smashes Steam Record

Did you think The Witcher 3 was done breaking records? Think again. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered launched just hours ago, and it's already smashed the RPG's all-time Steam concurrent player record.

Let's put this in perspective. The Witcher 3 first launched in 2015 with a peak of over 92,000 concurrent players on Steam. It took five years to beat that, hitting 103,000 in January 2020, right after the first season of The Witcher TV series dropped. Since then, despite the show's popularity and the 2022 next-gen update, it never quite reached that 2020 high. Until now.

Within hours of release, The Witcher 3 Remastered pushed the game past its old record. As I'm writing this, the concurrent player count on Steam is sitting at 120,324—and it's been climbing by the minute. I've had to update that number multiple times already. And remember, it's a working day in the US, UK, and Europe, so a huge chunk of players haven't even had a chance to jump in yet. Expect that number to keep rising, especially as we head into the weekend.

What's driving this surge? The remaster is a free update for anyone who already owns the base game, so veteran fans have every reason to return. But it's also pulling in newcomers curious to see what all the fuss is about. It'll be interesting to see if CD Projekt Red shares how many are returning players versus first-timers.

And it's not just player counts that are impressive. The Witcher 3 Remastered currently holds a Metacritic score that makes it the best-rated game of 2026, and the best version of The Witcher 3 to date. Fans are also delighted that the remaster kept the game's hilariously low-poly pigeons—one player summed it up perfectly: "Glory to low poly."

So, whether you're a seasoned witcher or a curious newcomer, there's never been a better time to dive back into this classic. Will you be picking up the remaster and joining the record-breaking crowd?