The knock-on effects of Netflix’s latest smash hit series continue to unfold.
Released just in time for Christmas last year, The Witcher, starring Man of Steel actor Henry Cavill in the lead role as Geralt of Rivia, has been inundated with praise by fans and critics alike. Bolstered with excellent acting talent, beautifully choreographed action and a gripping narrative (thanks to Andrzej Sapkowski’s source material), the streaming service has already greenlit a second – and potentially third – season in light of the first’s triumph.
So successful has the series been in capturing audiences’ imaginations, in fact, that the franchise is enjoying a renaissance, of sorts, in other media.
The phenomenon began at the tail-end of last year when Valve’s Steam service recorded a massive uptick in concurrent players of The Witcher 3. CD Projekt’s acclaimed RPG, despite being almost five years old, came within an inch of hitting six figures over the holiday period, smashing any previous record held by the title. Sapkowski’s original works, too, enjoyed a huge rise in exposure, with the author quickly becoming Amazon’s most popular.
And now, no more than a week into the New Year, the craze continues. The aforementioned retailer, it seems, has been fulfilling so many orders for the books that several are now listed as sold out. A box set containing the first three books in Geralt’s saga, for example, is noted as being ‘temporarily out of stock,’ with no mention of an expected restock date. Rather predictably, third-party sellers are now attempting to capitalize on the shortage by offering the works of fiction at inflated prices. One listing containing seven books is currently available for $124.99. What a bargain.
How long readers will be forced to wait in order to get their hands on the books remains to be seen, though, with The Witcher‘s popularity at an all-time high, we wouldn’t at all be surprised if the series is given a massive reprint in the near future. Watch this space.
