The Witcher Netflix’s appeal to gamer fandom

In January 2020, Netflix topped Wikipedia show searches following the season one launch of its fantasy scripted drama original, The Witcher. The show was based on a story universe created by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, which originated in novel form and morphed into a hugely popular game franchise with 40-million-unit sales to date. The central character is a supernaturally gifted monster hunter with a remit to battle various denizens of a fictional, unnamed world that is divided into elaborately political kingdoms. The Netflix rendering of the story universe inclined heavily towards the game franchise, with the aesthetic of the show reflecting gimmicks in the game – from casting, camerawork and editorial style choices, to scenes set specifically in side-quest settings ardent players will instantly recognise. The success of season one resulted in a season two being commissioned alongside an animated origin story film, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.

The Witcher is, in many ways, a land grab by Netflix for a share of the fantasy / horror audience from HBO’s Max’s Game of Thrones (GoT) prequel, House of the Dragon. However, due to its gamer fanbase, it did not need to replicate the mainstream crossover appeal of GoT in order to justify its return on investment for Netflix. The fact that creators of the of the show have stylistically aligned it so closely to the already-popular game enables Netflix to tap in the 40-million-strong gamer fanbase for the franchise. Converting 5% of these fans alone into a year-long Netflix subscription, allowing for churn, would have covered the production cost of season one of the series. 

The increasingly asynchronous nature of content consumption in the post-linear world of streaming TV has created the commercial demand, as well as ensuring cultural freedom for, show commissioners to focus on strong niche appeal. This is a pivot from the traditional four-market quadrant (targeting the under 25 / over 25 / male / female audiences) prime-time, big-budget commissions of the analogue era. The success of The Witcher is down to the confidence that streaming services now have to invest big budgets into niche shows. Due to the pooled cross-entertainment global niche fanbases that can be targeted for a particular new release, so stems the confidence in their success.