Cyberpunk 2077 hit 87,000 concurrent Steam players, its highest in 2.5 years, driven by a historic 70% discount and the Edgerunners Season 2 trailer.
Cyberpunk 2077 surpassed 87,000 concurrent players on Steam over the weekend of June 29, 2026, marking its highest peak in roughly two and a half years. According to SteamDB data, the last time CD Projekt RED’s open-world RPG put up numbers this high was in late 2023, during the Phantom Liberty DLC launch window. The surge arrived without any new game content, driven entirely by a record-breaking Steam discount and fresh promotional momentum from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2.
What Caused the Player Spike?
Two events converged at the same time. The Steam Summer Sale, running from June 25 through July 9, 2026, slashed Cyberpunk 2077’s price by 70%, bringing the base game down to $17.99 from $59.99. This is the deepest discount the game has ever received on Steam, beating a previous record of 65% set in April 2026. The Phantom Liberty expansion is 40% off at $17.99, and the Ultimate Edition bundle sits at 60% off for $33.10.
On the same weekend, Netflix, CD Projekt RED, and Studio Trigger released the second official teaser trailer for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2. The combination of the lowest-ever price point and renewed cultural buzz around the franchise created conditions for a rapid doubling of the game’s typical concurrent player count, which had been averaging around 28,000 to 32,000 throughout spring 2026.
The Numbers in Context
Steam Charts data paints a clear picture. The game’s 24-hour peak hit 87,025 on June 29. For comparison, the previous months looked considerably quieter: May 2026 peaked at 53,569, April at 50,852, and March at 53,058. The all-time concurrent record remains 830,387 from launch day in December 2020, and the post-launch high was 273,990 during the Phantom Liberty release in October 2023.
What makes this surge noteworthy is context. Cyberpunk 2077 is a purely single-player RPG with no battle pass, no seasonal content drops, and no live-service loop. For a 5.5-year-old game in that category to consistently pull 25,000 to 40,000 daily players, and then spike to 87,000 on media excitement alone, is genuinely rare.
Edgerunners 2: A New Story in Night City
The Edgerunners 2 teaser, which dropped on June 29, introduced four new main characters for a standalone 10-episode story set in Night City. The season is confirmed for a fall 2026 premiere on Netflix. Unlike the first season, which followed David Martinez, the new arc features an entirely fresh cast.
The four protagonists are Roman Carax, a young cinephile who records everything through a vintage camcorder; D, a revenge-driven netrunner from Snake Nation; Talia Yang, a lethal ex-corpo operative; and Weak “King” Kingsley, a veteran edgerunner teetering on the edge of cyberpsychosis. Much of the teaser is presented through Roman’s grainy camcorder lens, giving the footage a distinctive found-footage aesthetic.
Director Kai Ikarashi takes the lead after helming one of Season 1’s standout episodes. Showrunner Bartosz Sztybor returns and has described the second season as “sadder, darker, more bloody, more raw.” Character designer Kanno Ichigo also returns. The original score is composed by Tsuneo Imahori, with Rico Nasty’s “You Can’t Run From Me” featured in the teaser.
This Pattern Has Happened Before
The original Edgerunners anime created an even more dramatic player surge in September 2022. Before the show launched, Cyberpunk 2077 averaged around 10,000 to 15,000 concurrent players on Steam. Within days of the anime premiering alongside a 50% discount, the count exploded to 136,724 concurrent users. The game shot back to number one on Steam’s sales charts and CD Projekt RED reported one million daily players across all platforms.
That 2022 resurgence fundamentally changed the game’s reputation trajectory. Combined with the 2.0 overhaul and Phantom Liberty, it helped Cyberpunk 2077 climb from a cautionary tale about broken launches to a recommended modern classic. The current 2026 spike follows the same playbook: anime buzz plus steep discount equals massive player influx.
Wuthering Waves Crossover Expanded the Audience
Adding to the franchise’s visibility, a major crossover between Wuthering Waves and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners launched on June 8, 2026. Developed in partnership with CD Projekt RED, the collaboration brought Lucy and Rebecca into Kuro Games’ gacha RPG as playable 5-star characters. Rebecca was offered for free, while Lucy appeared on a limited banner.
The crossover included a dedicated Night City-themed area called Somnoire, an Adam Smasher boss fight, and a full storyline quest. Running until July 9, 2026, the event bridged two very different gaming communities and kept the Cyberpunk brand in active conversation throughout June, right before the Edgerunners 2 trailer amplified everything further.
PS5 Pro Update Boosted Console Performance
CD Projekt RED released a free PS5 Pro update on April 8, 2026, adding a performance mode with up to 120 fps support and a ray tracing mode with dynamic 4K resolution scaling. This technical refresh addressed hardware optimization on Sony’s latest console and contributed to sustained player engagement on the console side, even as the Steam numbers grabbed headlines.
35 Million Copies and a Sequel in Development
Cyberpunk 2077 crossed 35 million copies sold worldwide by November 2025, outpacing The Witcher 3’s sales trajectory over the same timeframe. The franchise’s future is actively being built: Cyberpunk 2, previously codenamed Project Orion, is in full production with a team of 135 developers. Creator Mike Pondsmith revealed at Digital Dragons 2025 that the sequel will feature a brand-new city alongside Night City, describing it as “like Chicago gone wrong.”
Things Players Want to Know
How much does Cyberpunk 2077 cost right now?
During the Steam Summer Sale (through July 9, 2026), the base game is $17.99 (70% off), Phantom Liberty is $17.99 (40% off), and the Ultimate Edition bundle is $33.10 (60% off). This is the game’s lowest recorded price on Steam.
When does Edgerunners Season 2 release?
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 premieres on Netflix in fall 2026. No exact date has been announced yet. The second teaser trailer was released on June 29, 2026.
Are David and Lucy in Edgerunners 2?
Season 2 is a standalone story with an entirely new cast of four main characters. Whether any Season 1 characters will make cameo appearances has not been confirmed.
Is Cyberpunk 2077 worth playing in 2026?
The game is in a fundamentally different state than its 2020 launch. The 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty expansion overhauled core systems, and user reviews on Steam have climbed to “Very Positive” territory. At $17.99, it is at its most accessible price point ever.
Will Cyberpunk 2077 get more content updates?
CD Projekt RED has stated that major content updates for Cyberpunk 2077 are complete. Technical patches like the PS5 Pro update continue, but the studio’s primary focus has shifted to Cyberpunk 2 and The Witcher 4.
What is the Wuthering Waves crossover?
Wuthering Waves Version 3.4 introduced a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners collaboration featuring playable characters Lucy and Rebecca, a Night City-themed area, and story quests. The event runs from June 8 to July 9, 2026, and Rebecca is available for free.
