Published: September 30, 2026 — by Vito Ruocco

The Witcher 3 Remastered Shatters Steam Records: A Week of Gaming News That Redefined the Industry

It’s a rare week when a game that first launched eleven years ago becomes the hottest topic in the industry — but that’s exactly what happened when CD Projekt Red dropped the free Witcher 3 Remastered update and watched nearly 120,000 concurrent players flood into the already-massive RPG on Steam alone. And that wasn’t even the only headline. From Call of Duty finally listening to its community, to Minecraft announcing its first brand-new dimension in fourteen years, to Naughty Dog teasing a packed future of The Last of Us projects, the last week of September 2026 has been nothing short of historic for the video game world.

The Witcher 3 Remastered: A Record That Nobody Saw Coming

When CD Projekt Red announced a free Remastered edition of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, expectations were high — but the reality has exceeded even the most optimistic projections. Released on September 29, 2026, the Remastered update immediately propelled the eleven-year-old RPG to its highest-ever concurrent player count on Steam, surging past 120,000 players and landing it as the ninth most-played game on Valves platform at the time of writing. According to Steam data-tracking website SteamDB, that figure surpasses the game’s original launch peak of 92,000 in 2015, the previous record of 103,000 in January 2020 (fueled by the Netflix series), and the 89,000 spike from the 2022 next-gen update.

The numbers become even more impressive when you consider that the Steam figure does not include players on GOG, the Epic Games Store, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch 2, or Xbox. Given that the game has sold over 65 million copies across all platforms, the actual number of people playing The Witcher 3 right now could be many multiples of the Steam record.

The Remastered edition brings a sweeping overhaul to the game’s visuals and performance, including significantly improved textures, ray-traced lighting, faster loading times, and enhanced foliage and environmental detail. CD Projekt Red has made the upgrade completely free for anyone who already owns any version of The Witcher 3 and is bundling both expansions — Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine — at no additional cost.

CD Projekt Red’s Strategy: Priming the Pump for Songs of the Past

The Remastered upgrade and the free expansions are designed to bring lapsed players back ahead of The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past, a brand-new expansion scheduled for 2027. CD Projekt Red has previewed five tracks from the expansions original soundtrack, and the expansion is confirmed to be a narrative-driven experience comparable in scope to Hearts of Stone.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Finally Fixes the Double XP Problem

Activision has confirmed that Modern Warfare 4’s double XP tokens will count down only while you’re actively in a match, not in real-world time. The change applies to existing tokens accrued from previous COD titles and Warzone. This follows the earlier announcement of a toggle to disable cosmetic skins in Warzone, as Activision works to win back lapsed fans ahead of the October 23 launch.

Naughty Dog: Two New The Last of Us Projects and an Intergalactic Delay

Naughty Dog is developing two new projects set within The Last of Us universe, both currently in very early stages. Studio head Neil Druckmann confirmed both will expand the canon beyond Part 1 and Part 2. Meanwhile, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will not be fully revealed until 2027, with Druckmann saying the studio needs to cook for just a little bit longer.

Minecraft: The Sift — A Brand-New Dimension After 14 Years

Mojang has announced The Sift, the first entirely new dimension since The End arrived in 2011. The dimension debuts in Minecraft Dungeons 2 (launched September 29, 2026) before coming to Java and Bedrock Edition in 2027. Minecraft continues to gain 300,000 new players daily with over 425 million copies sold.

Kojima’s Physint and More Industry Headlines

Xbox is reportedly paying a fraction of the $400 million Kojima quoted Sony for Physint. Mexican lawmakers have joined the fight for digital game ownership rights. Ubisoft is pushing forward with its Motherbrain generative AI initiative despite ongoing studio closures and layoffs. Double Fine releases Thank You Bus Driver on October 14 as its first independent title.

What This Week Tells Us About Gaming in 2026

Were seeing unprecedented generosity from CD Projekt Red, long-overdue player-friendly changes from Activision, and new creative risks from studios like Double Fine and Mojang. Yet the industry continues to hemorrhage jobs. The Witcher 3s record-breaking player count proves that older games, when properly supported, can still compete with the newest releases. For players, its never been a better time to be a gamer.

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