It's a wonder what two weeks and an anime can do. One day you're branded as one of the worst made triple-A games and being removed from marketplaces – the next, you're selling 20 million copies and have one of the most active modding communities around. Of course, the truth is that the devs worked pretty hard to fix the wave of issues Cyberpunk 2077 launched with, and the timing of the Edgerunners anime lined up perfectly to spark a renewed interest in the once meme-material game.It isn't just on PC and consoles that the game is seeing a resurgence – it turns out that people like a comeback story while on the go as well. The Steam Deck recently revealed its top played games for September, and there's quite a surprise among the top four. Well, two surprises if you count Vampire Survivors being on top, but we're talking about Cyberpunk 2077 coming in at number four. Not bad at all, considering what it went through over the past two years. Elden Ring and Stardew Valley sitting at second and third respectively should surprise nobody. Then it's pretty straightforward with Hades at fifth, followed by No Man's Sky, and Skyrim Special Edition. The list rounds off with Marvel's Spider-Man at number eight, Cult of the Lamb at nine, and ending with Disney Dreamlight Valley. That's a lot of indies on that list, following the trend of indies being popular on the Steam Deck.
If you can't believe that Cyberpunk actually managed to make this comeback, imagine how the devs must have felt. It's not like 2020 was a great year for anyone, but the backlash for the game's launch condition couldn't have been easy to take. CD Projekt's Paweł Sasko recently spoke on Twitch with fans about the game's rough launch and how the backlash affected the team.
He struggled to hold back his tears as he talked about what they went through then and how it feels to be appreciated after two years. “It's good to be back. It's really fucking good to be back. It was so heartbreaking,” said Sasko.