Topline
Hogwarts Legacy, an action role-playing game based on the Harry Potter universe, had one of the largest single-day releases for a PC game Friday, according to SteamDB, despite controversy and boycotts by players over whether to support J.K. Rowling’s franchise because of comments her critics have decried as transphobic.
Hogwarts Legacy was a success on its launch day.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Here are some key facts
SteamDB, which tracks concurrent Steam players, has recorded 783 277 Hogwarts legacy players as of Saturday at 1 p.m. It is the second-largest ever player count recorded within a 24-hour period.
This game is trailed only by PUBG. BATTLEGROUNDS which ranks first all time with a 24-hour peak at 1,320,219.
Hogwarts Legacy’s total marks the eighth-largest peak on Steam of all-time and is the third-ranked single-player game, trailing Elden Ring (953,426) and Cyberpunk 2077 (1,295,114)
Big Number
1.28 million. That’s how many people watched Hogwarts Legacy content on the streaming platform Twitch on February 9, according to the game’s developers, making it the highest-watched single-player game ever on the platform.
What We Don’t Know
It is unknown how many people played the game on other platforms, including on Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, though it topped both console’s sales charts before the game launched Friday. CNN has been told by experts that they anticipate the game selling at least 10,000,000 copies over its launch weekend.
The Key Background
Warner Bros. has released Hogwarts: Legacy, an open-world game. Discovery faced controversy due to its relationship with J.K. Rowling. Rowling is the author of Harry Potter novels. Rowling tweeted her views about biological sex and transgender rights in recent times, which were criticized by many as being transphobic. In response, the Human Rights Campaign and actors from Harry Potter films have expressed support for transgender people. The game—which some popular game review sites like Kotaku, Polygon and Eurogamer did not initially review in protest—does feature the first transgender woman character in the Harry Potter universe, though she (Sirona Ryan) has attracted criticism because her name allegedly sounds masculine. Some have pointed out that Sirona is the Celtic goddess of healing, rebirth.
Continue reading
‘Hogwarts Legacy’ Video Game Controversy: Boycotts And J.K. Rowling’s Comments On Transgender Community, Explained (Forbes)
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