With the exception of No Man's Sky, Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the best examples of a modern game that was able to turn things around. Despite being one of the most disastrous launches in recent video game history, CD Projekt Red has been working diligently to undo the massive amounts of damage that was left in the game's original wake. Many would agree that a lot's been improved since December 2020, though it's interesting to note that the player base is nowhere near what it was almost 18 months ago.
According to statistics pulled from SteamDB, a third party website that tracks all things related to the Steam client, the amount of users that play Cyberpunk 2077 has seen a massive drop over the last year and a half. At the time of writing, it's showing a recent 24-hour peak of just 19,789 players. When the game first came out, it had a peak of 1,054,388, no doubt inspired by its marketing campaign and the fact that fans have been waiting for literal years for it to come out. This also made it the fifth-highest Steam game in terms of concurrent users.
Even though the initial reputation is getting better all the time, these figures show that concurrent player base has dropped by around 98% since the game was released. The monthly breakdown shows that this number does not seem to be getting better. However, there was a massive 113% leap back in February, when patch 1.5 for Cyberpunk 2077 was released. This enormous update brought with it a laundry list of changes and big fixes, of which there were many. It shows that, when the patch rolled out, fans were willing to give the game another chance.
Sadly, it doesn't look as though many are too interested in the game these days. Even though 19,000 is still a lot of players, it's a yawning gulf away from the million that were concurrently playing when it was first launched. Cyberpunk 2077 was also review bombed, and while the current rating on Steam is at a respectable "mostly positive," there will be some who have been put off by the initial retail release.
That's not to say that it's a bad game. With CD Projekt Red currently working on an expansion, which is due out next year, the developer has shown willing by making significant changes that have helped make it a much more enjoyable experience. It's just a bit of a shame that it will unlikely reach the concurrent player count that it briefly enjoyed at the tail end of 2020.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: SteamDB