CD Projekt is now Europe’s second most valuable game company

In brief: It’s been an amazing few years for CD Projekt. The Polish company, parent of The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red, has experienced massive growth in recent times, and now holds the distinction of being the second most valuable gaming company in Europe with an $8 billion market valuation.

As noted by Reddit users, the firm’s valuation has jumped around $1.2 billion in a month. That puts the company behind one other European game studio: France’s Ubisoft, which is valued at $9.52 billion.

CD Projekt, which counts GOG among its subsidiaries, will owe a lot of its current valuation to CD Projekt RED. The Witcher 3 remains one of the best titles ever made, and its popularity received a huge boost when Netflix’s TV show arrived. The game’s average number of players for January hit over 48,000—the second-highest it’s been since the 51,000 average at launch in May 2015. The peak player count, meanwhile, passed 100,000 for the first time last month.

The Witcher 3 has made over $50 million on Steam, which means CD Projekt Red is now getting 80 percent of any subsequent sales on the platform—Valve’s cut is based on the number of game sales. The RPG has also arrived on the Nintendo Switch, where it boasts upgraded graphics and support for cross-saving with the PC version.

The other big earner for CD Projekt is, of course, Cyberpunk 2077. There was disappointment when it was pushed back to September, but pre-sales on multiple platforms and the hype surrounding its release will have helped increase the company’s valuation.