CD Projekt Red’s Songs of the Past expansion announcement sent The Witcher 3’s Steam player count surging to over 29,000 concurrent players, nearly doubling the pre-reveal figures. The expansion launches in 2027.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt surged to over 29,000 concurrent Steam players on the last day of May 2026, just days after CD Projekt Red announced Songs of the Past, a third major expansion for the 2015 RPG. According to SteamDB data, the game had been averaging between 15,000 and 20,000 peak concurrent players in the days before the May 27 announcement, making the post-reveal spike a near 2x increase in player activity.
What Is Songs of the Past?
Songs of the Past is the third full expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, following Hearts of Stone (2015) and Blood and Wine (2016). CD Projekt Red announced it on May 27, 2026, confirming a 2027 release window across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The expansion is being co-developed with Fool’s Theory, a Polish studio staffed by Witcher 3 veterans who are also working on The Witcher 1 Remake.
CDPR has stressed that Songs of the Past is an expansion, not a DLC. Community manager Marcin Łukaszewski clarified: “For us at CDPR, DLCs are small pieces of content we release for free. Expansions are major pieces of content providing lots of hours of gameplay, including new story, characters, etc.” The studio confirmed the expansion will be on par with Blood and Wine in terms of scale, suggesting 20 to 30 hours of gameplay for the main story and side content combined.
How Big Is the Player Count Surge?
The numbers tell a clear story. According to Steam Charts, The Witcher 3’s average player count dropped to approximately 11,500 in April 2026, following a gradual decline from a January 2026 peak of 37,614 concurrent players. The Songs of the Past announcement reversed this trend almost overnight.
Tech4Gamers reported that within days of the May 27 reveal, Steam player counts jumped from the 15,000 range to over 29,000, marking the game’s highest figures since February 2026, when the peak reached 29,465. The expansion itself is still roughly a year away, making this kind of pre-release resurgence particularly impressive for an 11-year-old single-player title.
65 Million Copies Sold and Still Going
The Witcher 3 reached 65 million lifetime sales as of May 2026, according to VGChartz and CD Projekt’s own financial reports. That figure places it among the best-selling video games of all time. On Steam alone, the game holds a 96% positive review rate across over 880,000 user reviews, with a Metacritic score of 93.
The December 2022 next-gen update, which overhauled graphics and added quality-of-life improvements for free, helped keep the game relevant. Now Songs of the Past provides a fresh reason for players to revisit Geralt’s world ahead of The Witcher 4.
The Road to The Witcher 4
The Witcher 4, featuring Ciri as the protagonist, is currently in full-scale production at CD Projekt Red. The studio confirmed the game will not launch in 2026, with the earliest realistic window being late 2027 or 2028. CDPR has also outlined plans for a new trilogy to be released within a six-year window.
Songs of the Past is widely speculated to serve as a narrative bridge between The Witcher 3 and The Witcher 4. While CDPR has not officially confirmed a direct story connection, the expansion’s positioning as Geralt’s final chapter before Ciri takes the lead makes the bridge theory highly plausible. TechRadar reported that CDPR described the expansion as a chance for players to “embark on a brand-new adventure before heading out on the Path as Ciri in the upcoming Witcher 4.”
Updated System Requirements
Alongside the expansion reveal, CDPR updated The Witcher 3’s minimum PC system requirements for the first time in years. The new specs are:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 / Intel Core i5-8400
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 / AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT (8 GB)
- VRAM: 6 GB
- RAM: 12 GB
- Storage: 70 GB SSD (HDD no longer supported)
- OS: Windows 11 64-bit
The Windows 11 requirement follows Microsoft’s end of extended support for Windows 10 in October 2025. CDPR stated they will no longer test their games on Windows 10, though the game will technically still run on the older OS without official patch support. Players who want to stick with the base game and previous DLCs can revert to an earlier build via Steam or Epic.
The jump from roughly 50-60 GB to 70 GB in storage hints at substantial new content. For reference, Hearts of Stone added approximately 4-5 GB and Blood and Wine around 8-9 GB.
Gamescom 2026: First Major Showcase
CD Projekt Red has confirmed that Songs of the Past will be showcased at Gamescom 2026, running August 25-30 in Cologne, Germany. Geoff Keighley announced that the expansion will be revealed during the Opening Night Live event. This will likely deliver the first gameplay footage, story details, and potentially a confirmed release date for early 2027.
Speculation about the expansion’s setting remains active. Some sources, including a purported leak discussed by IGN Poland, suggest the expansion could take place in a new region, possibly Zerrikania or Cidaris. The official announcement artwork shows Geralt holding a distinctive sword in front of an unnamed tree-like creature, fuelling fan theories about the story’s direction.
Why Are Players Returning Now?
Several factors are driving the resurgence. The immediate trigger is obvious: Songs of the Past represents entirely new content for a beloved game that most fans assumed had reached the end of its lifecycle after Blood and Wine’s conclusive ending in 2016. A Blood and Wine-scale expansion arriving 11 years later is unprecedented for a single-player RPG.
The Witcher 4 anticipation also plays a role. Many players want to replay or complete The Witcher 3 before Ciri’s new story begins. Regular Steam sales (the game frequently drops to around $9.99) lower the barrier for new and returning players alike. If CDPR runs a major discount during the Summer Sale period, player numbers could climb even higher.
Things Players Are Curious About
Will Songs of the Past be free? No. It is a paid expansion, consistent with how Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine were sold. No price has been confirmed, though speculation points toward a premium pricing tier given its scale.
Will it support last-gen consoles? No. Songs of the Past will only be available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. There is no PS4 or Xbox One version planned.
Is it connected to The Witcher 4? Not officially confirmed, but CDPR has positioned the expansion as Geralt’s final adventure before players step into Ciri’s shoes in The Witcher 4.
What engine is it built on? Songs of the Past uses CD Projekt Red’s proprietary REDengine, the same engine powering The Witcher 3. The Witcher 4 is being developed on Unreal Engine 5, making this expansion the last major REDengine release.
When will we see gameplay? CDPR has committed to showing more at Gamescom 2026 in late August. A late summer 2026 reveal window was confirmed in the original announcement.
With 65 million copies sold, a near-doubling of Steam player counts from a single announcement, and a Gamescom showcase on the horizon, The Witcher 3 is demonstrating that its hold on the RPG genre remains as strong as ever. Songs of the Past looks set to be one of 2027’s most anticipated releases, even before a single frame of gameplay has been shown.
