CD Projekt reports 88% profit growth on strong Cyberpunk 2077 sales, next Witcher game nears full production

CD Projekt has released a financial report for the first half of 2024. The company posted strong revenue and profit growth on the ongoing success of Cyberpunk 2077, while its new projects continue to accelerate.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Financial highlights

• According to its interim earnings release, CD Projekt reached PLN 424.8 million ($109.8 million) in net revenue in H1 2024, up 30.6% compared to the same period last year.
• The CD Projekt RED segment accounted for the vast majority of the total, while GOG’s revenue grew 3.7% year-over-year to PLN 87.6 million ($22.6 million).
• Operating profit increased by 43% year-over-year to PLN 140.2 million ($36.2 million), while net profit soared 88% to PLN 170 million ($44 million).
• Cyberpunk 2077, including the Phantom Liberty expansion, generated PLN 257.6 million ($66.6 million), up 80.7% year-over-year. Sales of The Witcher franchise fell 21.2% to PLN 61.2 million ($15.8 million).

• North America accounted for 70% of gaming revenue, followed by Europe (19.2%), Asia (6.1%), Australia (0.9%), and South America (0.5%). The share of domestic sales (Poland) was 3.2%.
• CD Projekt CFO Piotr Nielubowicz noted that the company managed to significantly increase its financial reserves: “Despite having paid out almost 100 million PLN in a dividend, and allocating over 150 million PLN to new projects, our reserves nevertheless grew by more than 55 million PLN.”
• As of June 30, CD Projekt had a total of PLN 1.36 billion ($) in cash, bank deposits, and bonds.
• The company currently employs 1,134 people, down slightly from 1,165 as of December 31, 2023.

Project Polaris nears full production as CD Projekt continues to increase investment in future games

• As of June 30, capitalized development costs (completed games, upcoming titles, and new technology) reached PLN 586.6 million ($151.7 million), up 11% year-over-year. Of these, new projects in progress account for PLN 336.1 million ($86.9 million).
• In the first half of 2024, CD Projekt invested PLN 107.1 million ($27.7 million) in its upcoming games. Cost of maintenance on released titles decreased by more than 49% to PLN 10.8 million ($2.8 million)
• Research work costs increased 14x to PLN 45.9 million ($11.8 million). It was driven by Orion (the next Cyberpunk game, not far from entering pre-production), Canis Majoris (The Witcher 1 remake, in the research phase), and Hadar (a new IP).

• As of July 31, 2024, the Polaris team included 410 people — the game is ready to enter full production by the end of the year. 60 employees are now working on Orion, followed by 42 on Sirius (Witcher spin-off from The Molasses Flood, in production) and 20 on Hadar.

• “Work on Polaris is progressing — its development team is nearing a major milestone which will mark the end of the preproduction phase,” CD Projekt joint CEO Michał Nowakowski commented. “The first half of the year was also a busy period for our Boston studio, which is laying the groundwork for Project Orion.”