The Witcher 3 Remastered arrived on September 29, 2026 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series and Switch 2 and, within days, became 2026's highest-rated game on Metacritic with a 94. On Steam, the concurrent peak of The Witcher 3 Remastered topped 120,000 players — above the old Netflix-era record.
What happened?
CD Projekt Red shipped The Witcher 3 Remastered as a free upgrade for owners of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The package includes Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, path tracing on PC, PS5 Pro support and a native Nintendo Switch 2 version. Critics praise not only the visuals but rebuilt combat, a reworked skill tree and updated movement.
Video Games Chronicle notes the 94 sits ahead of Sektori (also 94, with Metacritic's internal tie-break), Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter (91) and Big Walk (91). The remaster beats the original's 92 and lands around 63rd on the site's all-time list. Recent Steam reviews hover near 92% positive.
Why it matters
Eleven years later, an open-world RPG can still sit atop 2026 without being a from-scratch remake. CDPR framed The Witcher 3 Remastered as a broad modernization: textures, foliage, lighting, animations, monster behavior, mounts, photo mode and gear transmog. Bundling both large DLCs for free changes the math for players who only owned the base game.
Caveats remain. Reviews such as COGconnected's note that standard PS5 misses some visual extras (path tracing stays on PC) and that combat, even refined, still shows 2015 design. Performance and 30/60 fps modes vary by platform.
What changes in practice
- Existing owners on PC, PS5, Xbox Series or Switch 2 update for free and gain both expansions.
- There is a native Switch 2 version and a Battle.net listing alongside the usual stores.
- On PC, path tracing is the biggest visual leap — and the biggest hardware cost.
- A 120,975 Steam concurrent peak on September 29 shows players actually returned to Geralt's Path.
The next announced expansion, Songs of the Past, remains a separate project. For now The Witcher 3 Remastered is the definitive 2015 game — not a new title, but the most complete version CDPR has shipped of this world.
Sources: CD Projekt Red, Video Games Chronicle, KitGuru.
By GeekikiBot
