Cyberpunk 2077 is back on top of the conversation again. Over the weekend, the open-world RPG from CD Projekt Red climbed to 187,215 concurrent players on Steam alone, its highest peak on the platform since the Phantom Liberty era in October 2023. For a game that launched almost six years ago, that is a remarkable second act — and it did not happen by accident. Three things landed at once, and Night City felt the effect immediately.
The surge lines up neatly with three things happening at once: the premiere of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2 on Netflix, the arrival of the free Update 2.5 for the game, and a steep 70% discount on the Ultimate Edition on Steam. Any one of those would have brought some players back. Together, they turned Night City into one of the busiest places in gaming again — and pushed Cyberpunk 2077 right back up the Steam top sellers chart.
So what exactly happened, why does this anime effect keep working, and is now the right time to return to Night City? Here is the full picture.
What Is Cyberpunk 2077’s Player Count Right Now?
The headline number is 187,215 concurrent players on Steam, recorded over the weekend and confirmed by CD Projekt Red’s investor relations account on October 26, 2026. The studio rounded it to 187K and celebrated the milestone, saying it was excited to see so many players back in Night City and calling it the game’s highest count since the launch of Phantom Liberty.
That wording matters. This is not a new all-time record. The game’s Steam peak during the Phantom Liberty launch window in October 2023 was higher, at 274,526 concurrent players. What makes the new figure notable is that it is the best result in three years — and it arrived without a new expansion. A free update, a new season of a spin-off anime, and a sale were enough to produce the biggest Steam weekend the game has seen since 2023. No expansion. No relaunch. Just the right combination at the right time.
It is also worth remembering what the number does not include. The 187,215 figure counts Steam players only. Cyberpunk 2077 is also played on GOG and the Epic Games Store on PC, as well as on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2, so the true number of people playing at the peak moment was certainly higher. Steam is simply the platform where the surge is easiest to measure, and where the jump is most visible in the charts.
Reporting on the milestone from GameSpot and the Steam news roundup both point to the same conclusion: this was a genuine, broad-based return, not a one-hour blip. Players were not just logging in to check the update and leaving. The game held a top-seller position through the weekend while the conversation around Edgerunners Season 2 kept growing.
Why Edgerunners Season 2 Brought Players Back
If this story feels familiar, that is because it has happened before. When the first season of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners arrived on Netflix in 2022, it sparked a major revival for a game still recovering from its troubled December 2020 launch. That anime bump pushed the game’s Steam peak to 136,724 concurrent players in September 2022, and it is widely credited with helping turn Cyberpunk 2077’s reputation around. A cartoon — well, an anime — helping rescue a AAA game. Only in this industry.
Season 2, which premiered on Netflix on October 20, 2026, has now produced an even bigger surge. The new peak of 187,215 players is well above the first season’s high, which tells us something interesting: the audience for this world has grown, not shrunk, since 2022. Some of the returning players are veterans who finished the game years ago. Others are newcomers who watched the anime first and want to walk the same neon streets themselves. Both groups ended up in Night City at the same time, and that is why the numbers look the way they do.
That anime-to-game pipeline is unusually powerful here because Edgerunners and Cyberpunk 2077 share the same city, the same mood, and the same themes. The show does not just advertise the game; it makes you want to live in Night City. When viewers finish the season, the game is the obvious next step — especially when it is on sale and has just received new content tied directly to the show. You finish the last episode, you sit there for a minute, and then you go buy the game. That is the loop, and it works.
CD Projekt Red leaned into that connection deliberately. Update 2.5 includes a new story mission linked to Edgerunners, so players coming from the anime find something made for them waiting in the game. It is a smart loop: watch the show, play the mission, and feel like the two stories belong to one world. Because they do.
What Did Update 2.5 Add?
Update 2.5, also called the Edgerunners 2 Update, arrived on October 22, 2026, just days after the anime’s second season. It is free for existing owners, and it touches combat, style, exploration, and modding. Here are the additions players are talking about most:
- Dual-wielding: a new way to fight that changes how aggressive, close-range builds feel in combat.
- A new Edgerunners-linked story mission: fresh narrative content that acts as a prequel-style tie-in to the second season.
- New cosmetics and customisable cyberware fashion: more ways to make your version of V look exactly how you want.
- Expanded digital tourism: more reasons to slow down, explore Night City, and take in the world rather than rushing between missions.
- Cross-platform mod support: modding is now easier and available on consoles for the first time via mod.io, alongside quality-of-life additions such as a field-of-view slider.
Taken together, the update gives both kinds of returning players something to do. Veterans get new combat options and a new quest to chase. Newcomers get a smoother, more customisable first experience, with mods no longer limited to PC. Cyberpunk 2 associate director Pawel Sasko acknowledged the weekend peak on social media and asked players for feedback on Update 2.5 — a sign the studio is watching closely how this returning audience responds to the new systems.
Is Cyberpunk 2077 Worth It in 2026?
Short answer: yes, and this is arguably one of the best entry points the game has ever had. The version of Cyberpunk 2077 on sale today is not the version that launched in 2020. Years of patches, the sweeping Update 2.0 overhaul, the Phantom Liberty expansion, and now Update 2.5 have rebuilt it into a deep, stable, story-driven open-world RPG with one of the most atmospheric cities in gaming. If you played it at launch and bounced off, this is barely the same game.
If you enjoy rich single-player stories, morally messy choices, and a world that rewards exploration, Night City delivers. The main story, the side quests, and the Phantom Liberty storyline (included in the Ultimate Edition) give you dozens of hours of content, and the new Edgerunners-linked mission adds one more reason to start — or restart — now. Our full breakdown in Is Cyberpunk 2077 Worth Playing in 2026? goes deeper into who the game suits best.
The honest caveats still apply. This is a single-player RPG, not a live-service game with endless multiplayer modes, so if you are looking for a competitive shooter or a co-op grind, this is not that. Performance and visuals also depend on your hardware, as they do with any large open-world game. But for the price of the current 70% discounted Ultimate Edition on Steam, the value is very hard to argue with. Really hard.
Cyberpunk 2077 Player Count History in One View
Putting the new peak in context shows just how unusual this comeback is. Most single-player games fade quietly after launch. Cyberpunk 2077 keeps coming back, and each return has been bigger than the last — until the Phantom Liberty high water mark.
- December 2020: a troubled launch damages the game’s reputation, despite huge initial sales.
- September 2022: Edgerunners Season 1 drives the Steam peak to 136,724 concurrent players and powers the game’s revival.
- October 2023: Update 2.0 and Phantom Liberty push the Steam peak to 274,526 concurrent players, the game’s best result on the platform.
- October 2026: Edgerunners Season 2 and Update 2.5 lift the Steam peak to 187,215 — the highest since Phantom Liberty, and bigger than the first anime bump.
That arc is why so many players still root for this game. Our original Cyberpunk 2077 review — The Comeback Is Real made the same point years ago, and the 2026 numbers back it up: the comeback was not a one-time event. It became the game’s identity.
When Is the Next Cyberpunk 2077 Update?
As of writing, CD Projekt Red has not announced a date for the next Cyberpunk 2077 update. That is normal at this stage: the studio has just shipped a major free update and is gathering feedback on it, with Sasko publicly asking players what Update 2.5 got right and where it missed the mark. Any future patch will likely be shaped by that response.
What we do know is where the franchise is heading. A full sequel, currently referred to as Cyberpunk 2, is underway, so the original game is not the end of the story for Night City. In the short term, the studio also scheduled a special Edgerunners edition of its REDstreams show for October 27, looking back at the second season with members of the creative team — another sign that the anime and the game are being treated as one ongoing conversation.
For players, the practical takeaway is simple: do not wait for an announced date before jumping in. Update 2.5 is live now, the sale will not last forever, and the current player surge means guides, mods, and community discussion are all unusually active. If a further update arrives, it will almost certainly be free for existing owners, as 2.5 was.
Should You Return to Night City Now?
If you already own Cyberpunk 2077, there is no reason not to. Update 2.5 is free, the new mission is waiting, and the city is full of other players rediscovering it at the same time. Try a dual-wielding build, revisit the Edgerunners-linked quest, or simply spend an evening doing what the game does best: driving through rain-soaked streets with the radio on. Sometimes that is enough, and honestly, sometimes that is the best part.
If you have never played it, this weekend’s numbers make the case better than any trailer could. More than 187,000 people chose to be in Night City at the same time, three years after the game’s last expansion peak. That does not happen for a game people have finished with. It happens for a game that keeps earning its audience back.
Keep an eye on the Steam page and on CD Projekt Red’s official channels for how long the Ultimate Edition discount lasts, and check the Steam news coverage of the milestone for the community reaction. Whether you are a returning choom or a first-time visitor, Night City is open — and right now, it is busier than it has been in three years.
