Reception and awards

1:02 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the most acclaimed games ever made: Metacritic lists it at 93 on PC, 92 on PlayStation 4 and 91 on Xbox One, it won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2015 and hundreds of other such awards, and it has sold more than 65 million copies, CD Projekt's latest figure (Sep 2, 2026). The studio had hoped for less. In CD Projekt Red's 10th anniversary video, developers remember the office going quiet when the game unlocked in May 2015: "We were hoping to really get above 90", one says, "because that was really like the ambition", and the first review in was GameSpot's 10 out of 10, which "you could hear in the building". Its expansions were praised as highly, and The Witcher 3 Remastered, released free on Sep 29, 2026, scores 92 to 94 on Metacritic and brought the most players Steam has ever counted for the game.

Quick facts

Reviews in 2015

0:05 Critics gave The Witcher 3 near-perfect scores in May 2015. CD Projekt Red opened its launch trailer, uploaded by GameSpot on May 18, 2015, with four of them, 10/10, 9.8/10, 9.75/10 and 9.3/10, the scores Wikipedia lists for GameSpot, GameTrailers, Game Informer and IGN, followed by a card reading "Over 200 awards", counting the prizes it had collected before release. Polygon gave it 8/10, and Eurogamer its top rating. Metacritic still lists the original release at 93 on PC from 33 reviews, 92 on PS4 from 80 and 91 on Xbox One from 13. The complaints that lasted were about combat, movement and the launch version's frame rate, the "roadblocks to fun" IGN's 2026 review says Remastered removes.

The 2019 Nintendo Switch port scored 85 on Metacritic, and the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S versions from the 2022 Next-gen update score 94.

Game of the Year

2:01 The Witcher 3 won Game of the Year at The Game Awards on Dec 3, 2015. In the show's own clip, the host announces it and adds that it won three awards that night, "including best role-playing game, developer of the year and game of the year", the most of the evening. Accepting it, CD Projekt Red thanks the team and the players: the studio started in 2002 "with the dream of making an RPG with mature story, highly nonlinear", and "nobody believed" in it. Doug Cockle, Geralt's English voice, was nominated for Best Performance.

It won almost every other major prize too, as Wikipedia lists them:

• Golden Joystick Awards 2015: Game of the Year, Best Storytelling, Best Visual Design and Best Gaming Moment.
• 19th D.I.C.E. Awards (2016): Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, Story and Technical Achievement.
• 16th Game Developers Choice Awards (2016): Game of the Year and Best Technology.
• SXSW Gaming Awards 2016: Game of the Year, Technical Achievement, Visual Achievement and Narrative.
• Before release: IGN's Best RPG at E3 2013 and E3 2014, Most Wanted at the Golden Joystick Awards, and Most Anticipated Game at The Game Awards 2014.

Wikipedia's article counts 260 Game of the Year awards and more than 800 awards in all by Aug 2016 (its introduction says more than 200), making it the most awarded game until The Last of Us Part II passed it in 2021. In GQ's 2023 poll it ranked fifth among the best video games of all time.

0:48 CD Projekt Red's own count is higher: its trailer for the 2022 next-gen update calls the game "Loved by millions" and "Winner of over 1000 awards" before the card "Now enhanced for a new generation".

The expansions

1:44 Hearts of Stone (Oct 13, 2015) was called unmissable. IGN's review of Oct 9, 2015 singles out the new runewords, which "actually change or break the normal rules of combat", but says "the true star of Hearts of Stone is the story", which puts Geralt in situations such as a wedding speech and a heist and draws Olgierd von Everec and Gaunter O'Dimm with "nuanced performances". The expansion scores 89 on PC and 90 on PS4 and Xbox One on Metacritic.

4:40 Blood and Wine (May 31, 2016) did even better. Gameranx's review of Jun 1, 2016 calls it, at $20 in the United States, "a hell of a good time and more than worth it", while noting that Roach still gets stuck on scenery. Metacritic lists it at 92 on PC, 91 on PS4 and 94 on Xbox One, and it won Best Role Playing Game at The Game Awards 2016.

Remastered in 2026

6:46 The 2026 Remastered version was reviewed as the best way to play. IGN's review update of Oct 2, 2026 says its "greatest asset isn't that it adds anything the original sorely lacked, but rather that it removes some of the biggest roadblocks to fun": combat is "more challenging, but also easier to enjoy", movement "quicker and less irritating", and the revised skill trees "allow for more freedom", even if it "doesn't manage to fix some of the technical issues". On Oct 14, 2026, Metacritic's separate Remastered page lists 92 on PC (13 reviews), 92 on PS5 (6), 92 on Switch 2 (10) and 94 on Xbox Series X (5), with a PC user score of 8.6, and OpenCritic shows a Top Critic Average of 91 with 100% of 25 critics recommending it, including Push Square's 10/10 and Nintendo Life's 9/10. VGC reported in Sep 2026 that it had become the highest-scoring game of 2026 on Metacritic. GameDaily's review roundup of Oct 7, 2026 calls performance "the only quibble", with VGC noting frame-rate instability in the PS5 ray tracing mode.

10:25 The Nintendo Switch 2 version won over Nintendo reviewers. Nintendo Life's video review of Oct 6, 2026 says the end result "is just so much better" than the Switch port and "an utter delight to play" at 40 frames per second in its tests, and closes on the upgrade being free for owners of the Switch version: "How ridiculous is that". Digital Foundry called it "a colossal upgrade" over the Switch 1 port, as Nintendo Life summarized its analysis. Owners of other versions pay $59.99 on the US eShop.

Players on Steam

The Witcher 3 drew more players in 2026 than at its launch. These are SteamDB's measured peaks of players online at once, each as reported by the press that read them:

Steam's Web API counted 42,992 players at 09:50 UTC on Oct 14, 2026. Steam's own reviews put the game at Overwhelmingly Positive, with 871,513 of 904,162 reviews positive (about 96%) on Oct 14, 2026, and Very Positive (80% of 15,843) for the last 30 days. Inven Global dated the all-time peak "on October 5", probably its report date or time zone; GAMES.GG gives Sunday, Oct 4.

Sales

The Witcher 3 sold 4 million copies in its first two weeks and topped the UK chart in its launch week, according to Wikipedia. CD Projekt's reported totals since: more than 50 million (May 2023), more than 60 million (May 2025) and more than 65 million (first reported May 28, 2026 and repeated on Sep 2, 2026, when the Witcher series passed 90 million). The full timeline is on Development history.

Why it lasts

17:27 Ten years on, the developers credit the characters. Asked in the anniversary video why people still play, they answer that "it connects with you on such an emotional level", that the characters "are not, you know, black or white", that the soundtrack is "a masterpiece" and that players "want to ride the horse, see the sunset". The story behind those characters is on Story and Characters.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Witcher 3's Metacritic score? The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt scores 93 on PC, 92 on PS4 and 91 on Xbox One on Metacritic for the 2015 release; the 2026 Remastered version scores 92 on PC, PS5 and Switch 2 and 94 on Xbox Series X (Oct 14, 2026).

Did The Witcher 3 win Game of the Year? Yes. The Witcher 3 won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2015 on Dec 3, 2015, along with Best Role Playing Game and Developer of the Year for CD Projekt Red, and Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards and the Game Developers Choice Awards.

How many awards has The Witcher 3 won? The Witcher 3 had 260 Game of the Year awards and more than 800 awards in all by Aug 2016, per Wikipedia; CD Projekt Red's 2022 trailer says "over 1000 awards".

Is The Witcher 3 Remastered good? Yes. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered scores 92 to 94 on Metacritic and 91 on OpenCritic (Oct 14, 2026); IGN says it removes "some of the biggest roadblocks to fun" of the original, though performance is "still not perfect".

How many people play The Witcher 3 on Steam? The Witcher 3 reached an all-time Steam peak of 137,724 players at once on Oct 4, 2026, after Remastered's launch, per SteamDB as reported; 42,992 were playing at 09:50 UTC on Oct 14, 2026.

How many copies has The Witcher 3 sold? The Witcher 3 has sold more than 65 million copies, CD Projekt's latest figure (Sep 2, 2026).

Which Witcher 3 expansion is better reviewed? Blood and Wine scores slightly higher than Hearts of Stone on Metacritic (92, 91 and 94 against 89, 90 and 90) and won Best RPG at The Game Awards 2016; IGN called Hearts of Stone, whose story is its strength, unmissable.

Sources

• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Metacritic, read Oct 14, 2026
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, Metacritic, read Oct 14, 2026
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, OpenCritic, read Oct 14, 2026
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Wikipedia, read Oct 14, 2026
• The Game Awards 2015, Wikipedia, read Oct 14, 2026
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone, Wikipedia, read Oct 14, 2026
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine, Wikipedia, read Oct 14, 2026
• CD PROJEKT RED wraps up the first half of 2026, CD Projekt, Sep 2, 2026
• The Witcher 3 Remastered review roundup, GameDaily, Oct 7, 2026
• The Witcher 3 Remastered is now the highest-scoring game of 2026 on Metacritic, VGC, Sep 2026
• Digital Foundry delivers its tech verdict for The Witcher 3 Remastered on Switch 2, Nintendo Life, Oct 2026
• The Witcher 3 remaster hits all-time high concurrent Steam players on launch day, Inven Global, Sep 2026
• Powered by remaster, The Witcher 3 sets new all-time peak concurrent player record on Steam, Inven Global, Oct 2026
• Witcher 3 Remastered Steam record, GAMES.GG, Oct 5, 2026
• Witcher 3 Remastered Steam record, God is a Geek, Oct 1, 2026
• The Witcher 3's remaster just brought it to a new all-time concurrent player count peak, PC Gamer, Oct 3, 2026
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt current players, Steam Web API, read Oct 14, 2026
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt reviews, Steam, read Oct 14, 2026
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - 10th Anniversary Celebration with the Developers, The Witcher, May 30, 2025 (video)
• Official Launch Trailer - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, GameSpot, May 18, 2015 (video)
• The Game Awards 2015 - Game of the Year Winner, The Game Awards, Dec 4, 2015 (video)
• The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Next Gen Update Official Trailer, GameSpot, Nov 23, 2022 (video)
• The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone Review, IGN, Oct 9, 2015 (video)
• The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine - Before You Buy, gameranx, Jun 1, 2016 (video)
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered Review Update, IGN, Oct 2, 2026 (video)
• The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Remastered Nintendo Switch 2 Review - Is It Worth It?, Nintendo Life, Oct 6, 2026 (video)