The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered is out today and propelling the 11-year-old open-world RPG back up the Steam charts. In fact, the game just broke a new concurrent player record. And for good reason, too. The remaster, a free upgrade that improves visuals and tweaks gameplay, really does feel worth returning for.
The Witcher 3 peaked at under 100,000 concurrent players back when it first released on Steam. Now it’s over 120,000 and still rising. Valve’s storefront wasn’t nearly as popular then as it is today, especially in markets like China. But major sales and updates have seen the numbers spike in more recent years as well, though nothing like today’s peak in popularity. Even the 2023 next-gen update for consoles, which also came to PC, didn’t come close.
It no doubt helps that The Witcher 3 is currently on sale for 50 percent off, and the remastered update is free to everyone who already owns the game, providing the perfect reason to dip back into one of the best fantasy RPGs ever made. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered includes not just gameplay changes and visual improvements, but entirely overhauled UI systems and new features like a photo mode that lets you changes the weather and time of day on demand.
The full list of patch notes is on CD Projekt Red’s website and is quite long. There are over 70 individual tweaks and fixes laid out, as well as platform-specific updates like updated graphics modes on PS5 and in-menu mouse controls on Switch. There are also spec sheets for running the game at ultra settings on PC, with users now needing a GeForce RTX 5080 and 24GB of RAM to max out the visual detail and performance. Unfortunately, there are also reports of players with AMD graphics cards running into trouble due to missing driver support in the new update.
#TheWitcher3Remastered Vs Original.
I think the biggest and most obvious visual upgrade is the lighting quality, which has improved significantly. The addition of GTAO and better shading also helps elevate the overall presentation.
On the flip side, Global Illumination is… pic.twitter.com/kpOgIi7KUG— BenchmarKing (@BMKing23) September 28, 2026
Switch 2 owners, however, appear to be in for a rare treat. The Witcher 3 was one of the more ambitious ports for the original Switch and one that arguably didn’t really pan out. It ran, but with tons of compromises that made it hard to recommend, even for people who had no other way of playing it. The experience on Switch 2, a free upgrade for owners of the last-gen version, appears to be making good on the promise of the original port, and offering a quality experience in line with what players got in the Cyberpunk 2077 port last year. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but those who have report decent results that are at least above the base-level experience on PS4 and Xbox One.
Here’s Nintendo Switch 2 gameplay of The Witcher 3 Remastered on Handheld Mode
It’s far superior to the old NS1 version and looks better than the PS4/XB1 versions but does have a pretty low resolution, looks 720p to me. pic.twitter.com/3nODUf81U5
— Synth Potato🥔 (@SynthPotato) September 28, 2026
In fact, there are so many upgrades floating around in the latest version of The Witcher 3 that some fans were worried that its unofficial mascot had been buffed out of existence. A low-poly pigeon was photographed and went viral back in 2023. The meme now lives in Witcher fans’ hearts alongside pictures of Geralt in a bathtub. When one player took a photo of a pigeon standing on the ground from the remaster that showed it with a new level of detail, players initially freaked out, worried that CD Projekt Red had murdered low-poly.
This is a false alarm.
Street pigeons have always been different from the ones flying. https://t.co/flLv1VgqF6 pic.twitter.com/6JFGuzZ7K2
— AmericanTruckSongs9 (@ethangach) September 28, 2026
I did a bit of digging myself, however, and confirmed that she remains intact. The models for pigeons when they are flying in the air are different from those of them standing around. CD Projekt Red confirmed to me that no changes were made to the airborne asset, though the one on the ground did get some extra polish. “The flying low-poly pigeon is there, and will remain there so we don’t upset too many people externally OR internally!” a spokesperson confirmed to Kotaku.
I’ve spent several days with the remaster and will try to have some more in-depth impressions soon. Generally though, it’s quite good, even if I’m not sold on all of the visual changes. Mostly, I’m just grateful to have another good reason to go back and replay a masterpiece. It’s wild how well it still holds up.
