The Witcher (Polish: Wiedźmin) is a fantasy action role-playing game series created by CD Projekt Red and published by CD Projekt. It is based on a book series with the same name written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The games are not part of the original story from the books.
The main series began in 2007 with the release of The Witcher and ended in 2015 with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. As of 2022, the series includes three main games, two expansion packs, and seven related games. By March 2023, the series had sold 75 million copies.
In March 2022, a fourth game in the series was announced to be in early development. This game is planned as the start of a new trilogy. In October 2022, a remake of The Witcher was announced. Fool's Theory will develop the remake with guidance from the Witcher team and CD Projekt Red. Another game will be developed by The Molasses Flood with support from CD Projekt Red.
The series has also led to a series of graphic novels published by Dark Horse Comics.
Gameplay
The series follows Geralt of Rivia, a talented monster hunter, as he explores a fantasy world filled with magic, political conflicts, and dangerous creatures. Players guide Geralt through the game by exploring the environment, fighting enemies, and making choices that influence the story. The games are famous for their complex stories, choices that are not clearly right or wrong, and detailed world-building that creates an engaging experience for players.
The games use a third-person view, allowing players to see Geralt on the screen as they move through a partially open world. Throughout the game, players face tough decisions that change the ending and affect the game world. These choices can influence relationships between characters, unlock new quests, or alter the story’s direction.
Quests in the game have multiple solutions and can lead to different paths depending on the player’s decisions. This increases the game’s replayability and encourages players to explore new possibilities. Many quests involve talking to non-player characters (NPCs) and building relationships with them, which can lead to different outcomes in the story. The series includes different types of quests, such as main story quests, side quests, contracts, and treasure hunts. Each type of quest offers unique challenges and rewards, such as advancing the story, finding rare items, or unlocking new areas.
Potions are items Geralt can use to temporarily improve his abilities. Players can choose which skills to develop based on their preferred way of playing and customize Geralt’s abilities accordingly. In addition to potions and skills, the game includes equipment upgrades like weapons and armor that enhance Geralt’s abilities. Crafting and upgrading gear is an important part of the game. Players gather resources and work with crafters to create gear that best fits Geralt’s needs.
Main series
In 1996 and 1997, a video game called The Witcher (Polish: Wiedźmin) was being created by a company in Poland named Metropolis Software. However, the project was canceled before completion. The game's director was Adrian Chmielarz, who was also a co-owner and creative director at a company called People Can Fly. During the development of the game, he created the name "The Witcher." According to Chmielarz, the game would have been a 3D action-adventure game with features such as choices that affect the story and a system for earning points to improve the player's character.
In 2003, a Polish video-game company named CD Projekt Red worked with the author of The Witcher books, Andrzej Sapkowski, to gain the rights to create a game based on the story. This led to the release of The Witcher, a role-playing game based on the saga, in October 2007 for personal computers. The game received positive reviews in Europe and North America, even though it was CD Projekt Red's first game. It was published in Poland by CD Projekt and worldwide by Atari. A version for consoles, called The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, was planned for release in fall 2009 but was canceled in spring 2009. The story of this game takes place about five years after the events in the main book series.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (Polish: Wiedźmin 2: Zabójcy królów) is the sequel to the first The Witcher game, developed by CD Projekt Red. On September 16, 2009, before the game was officially announced, a video of the game was shared online. Two days later, CD Projekt Red confirmed the game was in development. The Witcher 2 was published in Poland by CD Projekt, in Europe by Namco Bandai Games, and in North America by Atari. The game was also sold digitally through platforms like Steam and Good Old Games. The story takes place about six months after the events of the first game.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Polish: Wiedźmin 3: Dziki Gon) was released on May 19, 2015. It quickly became one of the most highly praised video games ever made, selling over ten million copies by March 2016. Two expansion packs were later released: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone in 2015 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine in 2016. In December 2022, the game was updated with improved visuals and gameplay changes.
A remake of the original The Witcher (2007) game was first mentioned under the name Canis Majoris. This version will be rebuilt from the beginning using a game engine called Unreal Engine 5 by a company named Fool's Theory. The remake will be supervised by the creative team behind The Witcher series and CD Projekt Red.
A new game in the The Witcher series, named Polaris, is being developed. This game will use Unreal Engine 5 instead of the engine used in the previous two games. Polaris will start a new story in the series. CD Projekt Red plans to release two more games after Polaris, creating a new trilogy of high-quality role-playing games.
In November 2024, CD Projekt Red announced that Polaris has entered full production. A month later, in December 2024, a cinematic trailer for the game was shown at The Games Awards. The trailer featured a character named Ciri, who is now a witcher, as the main character of the new game.
Spin-offs
The Witcher: Crimson Trail (Polish: Wiedźmin: Krwawy szlak, "The Witcher: Bloody Trail"), also called The Witcher Mobile, is a mobile phone action game developed by Breakpoint with permission from CD Projekt in November 2007. It follows a young Geralt, a student who has finished his training to become a witcher, a monster-slayer.
The Witcher Adventure Game (Polish: Wiedźmin: Gra przygodowa) is a digital version of a board game with the same name released in 2014.
CD Projekt Red announced The Witcher Battle Arena, a free-to-play online game for mobile devices, on July 1, 2014. The game ended in late 2015.
Gwent: The Witcher Card Game (Polish: Gwint: Wiedźmińska gra karciana) is a digital collectible card game released in 2018.
In October 2018, CD Projekt Red released Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales (Polish: Wojna Krwi: Wiedźmińskie Opowieści, "War of Blood: The Witcher Tales"), a turn-based roleplaying game with gameplay similar to Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. The game’s 30-hour campaign lets players control Queen Meve, ruler of Lyria and Rivia, during events before the first Witcher game. The game world includes five regions not seen in previous Witcher games: Rivia, Lyria, Angren, Mahakam, and Lower Aedirn. The game received mostly positive reviews.
The Witcher: Monster Slayer (Polish: Wiedźmin: Pogromca Potworów) was an augmented reality video game for mobile devices released in 2021.
Roach Race is a free-to-play platform and side-scrolling game co-developed with Crunching Koalas. It was released for iOS and Android on September 6, 2022. A version of the game is included as an arcade minigame in Cyberpunk 2077, which was added with Patch 1.6 on the same day.
Sirius is a code name for a game developed by The Molasses Flood with support from CDPR. The game includes both multiplayer gameplay and a single-player campaign with quests and a story. In March 2023, CD Projekt Red announced it had restarted the game’s development.
CD Projekt Red partnered with Go On Board to create multiple Witcher-based games, such as The Witcher: Old World in 2023 and The Witcher: Legacy, which was funded through crowd support in 2025.
Reception
The Witcher series has mostly good reviews from critics and players.
The first game, The Witcher, received mostly positive feedback from critics. Reviewers praised its story, dialogue choices, mature themes, setting, role-playing features, character development system, and the main character, Geralt. However, some aspects like combat, animations, movement, and loading times were criticized.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was considered better than the first game in areas like combat, character customization, graphics, environments, immersion, and storytelling. The main criticisms were that combat was very difficult early in the game and that some scenes included excessive nudity.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt received very high praise from critics and players. It is often called one of the greatest games ever made. Reviewers highlighted its gameplay, story, world design, combat, music, and visuals. It had some small technical issues, but these were minor.
By March 2018, the series had sold over 33 million copies. By May 2020, sales had increased to over 50 million. As of March 2023, the series had sold over 75 million copies, with more than 50 million of those being The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. In January 2026, the company CD Projekt announced that The Witcher had sold 10 million copies and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings had sold 15 million copies. This brought the total sales for the entire series to 85 million, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises.
In October 2018, the author of the Witcher books, Andrzej Sapkowski, asked CD Projekt to pay him more money for the sales of the games. He requested over 60 million Polish złoty (more than US$15 million), which would be about 5% to 15% of the game’s total revenue. Sapkowski originally allowed CD Projekt to use his work for a one-time payment, but now believes he should receive more money because the series became more successful than expected. CD Projekt said they had met their obligations when they first bought the rights to the books but agreed to work with Sapkowski’s legal team to reach a fair solution. By February 2019, the two sides reached an agreement that would give Sapkowski extra payments for the games, though not as much as he had asked. The agreement was finalized in December 2019.