Cyberpunk 2077 Leaked to Pirate Sites and Shared at Unprecedented Rates

• At least 100,000 torrent users are actively sharing illicit ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ copies at the moment.
• The first packs are huge in size and take many days to download, by which point they’re already outdated.
• The game developer is trying to keep the situation under control with a wave of DMCA takedown notices.

The long-awaited and highly-anticipated action RPG video game ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ is reportedly breaking records in piracy rates. Its developer, ‘CD Project Red,’ is running to salvage what can be saved. According to reports from TorrentFreak, over a hundred thousand users are currently sharing the game on various public BitTorrent trackers, which has never happened for a game before.

In this case, it is a set of factors that come into play to create this impressive result. The extreme anticipation is one factor. The lack of a DRM protection system is another.

You see, ‘CD Project Red’ has opted to promote DRM-free distribution systems for years now, and they are using their own ‘GOG’ digital distribution platform for their titles. ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ has a price of 59.99 euros ($72.5) there, and most people who want to play it will do it legitimately through that platform. Then there’s also the Steam channel, where the number of buyers is also breaking records, so it’s clear that not everyone is turning to illegal channels.

Those who do are still a substantial number (100,000), even if they have to wait for many hours to get that big 55GB “CODEX” release that appeared online since day one. Then there’s an additional 45GB for the language packs, so getting what you’ll need to enjoy the game through piracy may take a few days of P2P fever. “FitGirl” has joined the pirate game by promising to take the pack down to a size of 35GB using a more sophisticated compression technique.

In response to these impressive numbers, ‘CD Project’ sent out DMCA notices to Google trying to remove torrent results, and to Vimeo that hosted videos of Xbox One S gameplay footage. The links may disappear from Google, but the situation on torrent indexers is unlikely to change.

Along with the game releases, there are bound to be many malware-laced torrents that will take advantage of the situation, as the game is hot, and it’s easy to trick people through it. Presenting them with something smaller than the massive packs discussed above would be a fairly easy way to lure people into downloading it.

If you are interested in playing Cyberpunk 2077, we suggest that you buy it and enjoy it properly. If the cost is prohibiting for you at this time, you can always wait for a while, as ‘CD Project Red’ may run a promotion soon. From what we hear, there are quite a lot of bugs that make the experience clunky at this time, so there’s no reason to rush your way into the “Night City” just yet.