Cyberpunk Timeline: From the Collapse to 2077 and Beyond

Cyberpunk's history splits from ours around 1990, when a hidden cabal inside the US government, an economic crash and a string of small wars push the world into the Collapse. Dates use the real-world calendar. The timeline here follows the current canon set by R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk RED and CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077, which build on the 1988 first edition (set in 2013) and Cyberpunk 2020. The 2005 edition, Cyberpunk V3.0, and the CyberGeneration spin-off are left out, because their futures were set aside. Where the tabletop books and the game tell an event differently, it's flagged. For the release order of the books, games and shows, see Cyberpunk in order. (Cyberpunk 2020; Cyberpunk RED; Cyberpunk 2077)

The Collapse (1990 to 1999)#

The 1990s are when Cyberpunk's world goes wrong. A secret alliance of US intelligence agencies runs the country behind the president's back, its schemes are exposed, and the American economy and government fall apart. Corporations step into the gap. (Cyberpunk 2020)

• 1990: The United States goes to open war with the drug cartels of Central and South America, starting the First Central American War. In secret, the agencies known as the Gang of Four begin sabotaging Europe. (Cyberpunk 2020)
• 1992: Arasaka, EBM and Petrochem back the developer Richard Night's plan for a new planned city on the Californian coast, Coronado City. The Aldecaldos form in Los Angeles as a protective society for the displaced. (Night City; Cyberpunk 2020)
• 1993: A small nuclear device goes off in New York City, killing 15,000. Construction on Coronado City begins. (Cyberpunk 2020; Night City)
• 1994: Europe exposes US fraud on the world stock markets and the global economy crashes overnight. US forces are driven out of Central America. Coronado City is founded. (Cyberpunk 2020; Night City)
• 1996: The Collapse of the United States. Martial law is declared, one in four Americans is homeless and riots spread. President James Richard Allen is assassinated on 17 August. (Cyberpunk 2020; Cyberpunk RED)
• 1997: The Mideast Meltdown: a nuclear exchange leaves most of the Middle East uninhabitable and cuts the world's oil supply. (Cyberpunk 2020)
• 1998: An earthquake drowns a third of Los Angeles. On 20 September, Richard Night is assassinated and Coronado City is renamed Night City in his honour. (Cyberpunk 2020; Night City)

The corporate wars begin (2000 to 2012)#

With national governments weak, the megacorps start fighting each other with private armies. Night City spends the decade under the Mafia, until the corporations take it back. (Cyberpunk 2020)

• 2001: The framework of the Net is set up around a global satellite network. (Cyberpunk 2020)
• 2004 to 2005: The First Corporate War. EBM and Orbital Air fight over the buyout of an airline, and Orbital Air wins by storming EBM's chief executive's compound. Other corporations learn that war can pay. The Mob takes over Night City in 2005. (Cyberpunk 2020; Night City)
• 2005: The cybermodem is invented, letting a human brain connect directly to the Net. (Cyberpunk 2020)
• 2007 to 2010: The Second Corporate War. Petrochem blames SovOil for the loss of a drilling station in the South China Sea and goes to war. It later turns out the loss was a genuine accident. (Cyberpunk 2020)
• 2009 to 2011: The Mob War. The corporations push the Mafia out and take charge of Night City. In 2010 a psychotic solo forms the city's Psycho Squad, the unit that becomes MaxTac. (Night City; Cyberpunk 2020)

2013: Johnny Silverhand and Alt Cunningham#

The first edition of the tabletop game is set here, and so is the story that sets up Cyberpunk 2077. NetWatch, the Net's police force, is founded by treaty the same year. (Cyberpunk; Cyberpunk 2020)

• April 2013: Arasaka kidnaps the netrunner Alt Cunningham, creator of the Soulkiller program, to make her build a new version for them. (Cyberpunk 2020; Cyberpunk 2077)
• The next night: Her ex-partner, the rockerboy Johnny Silverhand, uses a concert to start a riot outside Arasaka's Night City towers and leads a raid inside. They reach Alt too late: Soulkiller has been used on her, and her mind is lost in the Net. From then on, Johnny's war against Arasaka is personal. (Cyberpunk; Cyberpunk 2020; Cyberpunk 2077)
• 2014: Gang turf wars, the Metal Wars, tear through Night City and leave part of it as the Combat Zone. (Night City)
• 2016 to 2017: The Third Corporate War, fought almost entirely over the Net between financial firms. (Cyberpunk 2020)

2020 (the Cyberpunk 2020 era)#

The second edition of the tabletop game is set in 2020. Night City is a corporate company town at its peak, the Combat Zone is lawless, and Arasaka and Militech are already old enemies. (Cyberpunk 2020; Night City)

• 2020: The Carbon Plague sweeps Night City for two weeks, then stops for no clear reason. (Cyberpunk RED)

The Fourth Corporate War and the DataKrash (2021 to 2025)#

The worst of the corporate wars starts as a takeover fight between two ocean corporations and turns into a global war between the two biggest security companies on Earth. See the Fourth Corporate War for the full story. (Firestorm: Stormfront; Cyberpunk RED)

• 2021: The undersea shipping company IHAG goes bankrupt. Two rivals, OTEC and CINO, fight to take over what's left, first with stock raids and then with strike teams. (Cyberpunk RED)
• 2022: OTEC hires Militech and CINO hires Arasaka. In February the European bank behind the takeover forces a ceasefire, but Arasaka and Militech keep fighting each other on their own account. The war spreads across the world, into orbit and through cities such as Hong Kong. (Cyberpunk RED; Firestorm: Stormfront)
• 2022: The legendary netrunner Rache Bartmoss is killed in a corporate raid. A dead man's switch releases his viruses into the Net. This is the DataKrash: most of the Net is infected, data is wiped and rogue AIs break loose. (Cyberpunk RED)
• 2025: NetWatch declares the old Net unusable. What's left breaks into smaller local networks, and in the decades that follow NetWatch walls off the rogue AIs behind the Blackwall. (Cyberpunk RED; Cyberpunk 2077)

Arasaka Tower: 20 August 2023#

By August 2023 Night City is Arasaka's last stronghold in North America. The raid that ends the war there is the event Cyberpunk 2077 keeps coming back to. (Cyberpunk RED; Firestorm: Shockwave)

• 20 August 2023: Militech-backed strike teams hit Arasaka Tower, one of them under Morgan Blackhand. Johnny Silverhand, Rogue Amendiares and the netrunner Spider Murphy go in to free Alt Cunningham and destroy Soulkiller. Johnny is killed by Arasaka's cyborg Adam Smasher. Minutes after the survivors fly out, a small nuclear device brought in by the raiders goes off inside the tower and flattens the centre of Night City. Hundreds of thousands die. (Cyberpunk RED; Firestorm: Shockwave)
• The game's version: In Cyberpunk 2077, Johnny's memory of the day is different. He arms the nuke himself, is shot by Smasher on the roof, and is taken alive, interrogated by Saburo Arasaka and run through Soulkiller before he dies. Blackhand doesn't appear. The game treats Johnny's version as his engram's memory, not a reliable record. Either way, Arasaka ends up holding a copy of Johnny's mind. (Cyberpunk 2077; Cyberpunk RED)
• After the blast: President Elizabeth Kress, a former Militech chief, nationalises Militech and throws Arasaka out of the United States. The government tells the public Arasaka set off its own bomb, though the device that went off was Militech's. (Cyberpunk RED)
• 2025: The last fighting ends and the Fourth Corporate War is declared over. Arasaka spends the following years confined to Japan. (Cyberpunk RED)

The Time of the Red (2023 to the late 2040s)#

Dust from the Night City blast, orbital strikes and burning cities turns the sky red for about two years. Survivors name the rebuilding years after it. Cyberpunk RED is set in 2045, in the middle of this era. (Cyberpunk RED)

• 2026 to 2029: People driven out of ruined cities set out to resettle places abandoned since the Collapse. (Cyberpunk RED)
• 2028: Night City is formally refounded under a new charter, and suburbs such as Heywood and Pacifica are brought inside its limits. (Cyberpunk RED)
• 2030s: Rebuilding moves slowly. The ruined centre, the Hot Zone, stays radioactive for years. (Cyberpunk RED)
• 2045: Night City is a patchwork of rebuilt districts, gang turf and ruins, with the corporations weak and the streets running themselves. This is the world of Cyberpunk RED. (Cyberpunk RED)

The road to 2077 (2050s to 2076)#

By the 2060s the corporations are back on top and the United States has become the New United States of America under Rosalind Myers, a former Militech chief. Night City is about to fight for its independence. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty; The World of Cyberpunk 2077)

• 2069 to 2070: The Unification War. President Myers sends the New United States to retake the Free States that broke away during the Collapse. Night City is besieged until Arasaka arrives to break the siege, invited by the city council. Myers signs a treaty to end the war, and Night City becomes an independent city with Arasaka back inside it and a new tower on the old site. (The World of Cyberpunk 2077; Cyberpunk 2077)
• After the war: Kurt Hansen, a Militech colonel whose unit seized an unfinished corner of Pacifica during the fighting, refuses to leave. It becomes Dogtown, a walled district run by Hansen's militia, the Barghest. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)
• 2072: The Voodoo Boys drive off a police task force and become the real power in Pacifica. (Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit)
• 2075 to 2076: David Martinez, a street kid from Santo Domingo, joins Maine's crew of edgerunners with the netrunner Lucy and the gunner Rebecca. He is installed with a military-grade Sandevistan and pushes his body towards cyberpsychosis. In 2076 he dies fighting Adam Smasher in front of Arasaka Tower. See Edgerunners explained. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)
• Late 2076: V, a nomad, street kid or corporate depending on the lifepath chosen, meets Jackie Welles, and the two become mercenary partners. (Cyberpunk 2077)

2077: Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty#

Six months on from the prologue, V and Jackie take the job that changes everything. The full plot is in Cyberpunk 2077 story explained. (Cyberpunk 2077)

• Spring 2077: Saburo Arasaka arrives in Night City by sea with his daughter Hanako Arasaka and bodyguard Goro Takemura. The fixer Dexter DeShawn hires V and Jackie to steal Arasaka's Relic chip from Konpeki Plaza. During the heist, Yorinobu Arasaka murders his father. Jackie dies, Dex shoots V, and the Relic, now in V's head, brings V back with Johnny Silverhand's engram inside. (Cyberpunk 2077)
• Spring to summer 2077: Yorinobu takes over Arasaka and blames Militech for Saburo's death. V hunts for a way to stop the Relic, working with Takemura, Panam Palmer, Judy Alvarez, the Voodoo Boys and Alt Cunningham, who now lives beyond the Blackwall. (Cyberpunk 2077)
• Summer 2077: The netrunner Songbird contacts V, promising a cure. V is drawn into Dogtown, rescues President Myers after her plane is shot down there, and works with the agent Solomon Reed. See the Phantom Liberty story. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)
• Late summer 2077: V chooses who to trust for the final push, into Arasaka Tower and its data fortress Mikoshi or to the New United States. What happens to V, Johnny, Arasaka and Night City depends on that choice. See every ending explained. (Cyberpunk 2077; Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)
• 2079: In Phantom Liberty's The Tower ending, V wakes from a two-year coma after surgery to remove the Relic and goes back to a Night City that has moved on. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

Where the story stands#

The latest point on the timeline depends on V's ending, and CD Projekt Red hasn't said which one, if any, is canon. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Two new stories are coming. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 premieres on Netflix on 20 October 2026: a standalone 10-episode story with a new cast, sold with the line "David is dead. But Night City lives on." It hasn't been given a year, but it follows the first series. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 premiere date announced alongside new trailer; Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is now in production)

A full sequel to the game, codenamed Project Orion and often called Cyberpunk 2, was announced on 4 October 2022 and moved into preproduction in May 2025. Its setting and date haven't been confirmed. (CD Projekt strategy update; CD Projekt Q1 2025 results)