No game has had the hype, and the ensuing controversies, as Hogwarts Legacy has since perhaps Cyberpunk 2077. With the open-world title now out on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, the time has come for the world to see how good the game is compared to what has been a pretty lengthy preview.
As per official sources, Hogwarts Legacy is not a direct adaptation of the books and films, but it is ‘firmly rooted in the magical universe of the Wizarding World. While remaining true to J.K. Rowling’s original vision, the developers chart new territory by creating fresh ways for fans to immerse themselves in the Wizarding World.’
Streamers go all-in on Hogwarts Legacy in February
As usual, many streamers got early access to the game on platforms like Twitch, which has impacted their streaming habits and the general performance of other games. Some top content creators on Twitch, including Fextralife, xQc, alanzoka, and IlloJuan, have spent hours over the last week figuring out the mechanics of Hogwarts Legacy and letting fans in on these gameplay sessions.
Of course, the fact that Twitch Drops were also present for viewers to win free goodies would have played a huge part in boosting these creators’ viewership numbers. This scheme is one of the best ways for players, especially free-to-play ones, to gain new items and other prizes that they would usually not be able to access, so it would have helped grab more attention, even from those who may not have been Hogwarts Legacy fans.
Avalanche Software’s own Twitch channel has also been busy promoting its much-hyped game by putting in the hard yard when it comes to broadcasting the game to its global audience.
As a result, Hogwarts Legacy became the second most-viewed game on the purple platform over the past seven days. In fact, considering the IRL genre isn’t exactly a "game," it is safe to say that this Warner Bros. Games offering has blown every other title out of the water, including heavyweights like LoL, GTA V, and Minecraft, as the most watched game since February 7.
It has, in fact, been the most-watched game this whole month; again, when discounting IRL streams from the list. What is most astounding is that the game was only released to streamers and special folk on the sixth of this month (early access), meaning in just over a week, it has swept aside all comers to show that fans of the Harry Potter universe have waited too long for a game about their favorite fictional series and that they have been itching to play/get a look at the game that promised so much, with the added twist of the backdated time setting
Hogwarts Legacy eats into watch times of other popular games
Such has been the meteoric rise of this role-playing game that it has resulted in the percentage of Hours Watched of almost all other games dropping between February 7 and 9 compared to the previous three-day bracket.
The only title to save face was GTA V, which saw a decent spike in viewership of 4.5% over the last three days compared to the period between February 4 and 6.
Despite its esports season in full swing, which meant the game usually popped up with positive numbers across metrics, League of Legends saw quite a significant drop in HW viewership over this period, a reflection of Hogwarts Legacy’s popularity and impending release.
One game that really suffered as a result of this action-adventure title’s introduction was CoD: Modern Warfare, which saw a plunge of 74.5% in viewership between February 4 and 6 and February 7 and 9. That is a hit that the game can ill afford considering the series’ recent see-saw performance.
Over the past three days as well, i.e, February 10 to 12, the status quo has more or less remained the same, with Hogwarts Legacy still in second, although its HW stats did drop by 43% compared to the previous three-day period.
In some good news for LoL fans, the game’s viewership over the past three days went up by 42%, which is more or less the same percentage that Hogwarts Legacy lost. Surely, there is some connection there, but the bottom line is that with the ongoing esports championships for Riot Games’ MOBA across the globe, its HW numbers wouldn’t have stayed down for too long, even with the release of a potential monster in Hogwarts Legacy.
Just Chatting suffers most from Hogwarts Legacy’s rise
Expanding on the point that WB Games’ new release took out a chunk of other games’ airtime and HW stats is the fact that the Just Chatting category suffered the most from Hogwarts Legacy’s release, with around 9 million Unique Authentic Viewers who watched Hogwarts Legacy in between February 7 and February 12 viewing this genre in January.
Minecraft (4.15) and Valorant (4.03), two lore-heavy games, also had UAV numbers above 4 million on Twitch. This shows that while these viewers checked out both games, they contributed heavily to Hogwarts Legacy’s burgeoning watch numbers over the past week.
We can only expect these numbers to rise as more and more fans get access to the game and look to get as much information as they can about their new favorite pastime.
English, and Spanish viewers most interested in Hogwarts Legacy
Not unexpectedly, English (39.4%) and Spanish (10.6%) viewers were the ones who seemed most interested in the game, as they formed exactly 50% of the overall language viewership distribution (HW) of Hogwarts Legacy between February 7 and 12, a clean break up of three days before and three days after the title’s release. The total HW for the game was 49.53 million.
The next three most popular languages were German, Portuguese, and French, each between 8% and 9%, showing the kind of impact Rowling’s Wizarding World had in western Europe.
However, when it comes to the total HW post the release, i.e, between February 10 and 12, German hit second place, bumping down Spanish to third. Portuguese took a massive dive to sixth place leading to French and Russian going up a place each.
This slide can perhaps be attributed to the ongoing Brazilian LoL championships. With the game and its esports scene exceedingly popular in this region, the dynamics can change even more as we head into the summer.
There is a slight downside to Hogwarts Legacy’s numbers
If the daily stats over the week in question, i.e, February 7 to February 12, are seen, there has been a slight downward trend in viewership numbers for Hogwarts Legacy. The best day for the game came on the day of its beta release, where it saw 1,269,317 Peak Viewers, 527,931 Average Viewers, and 12,406,373 Hours Watched.
However, there has been a general decline in these numbers since then, including on its release date of February 10. Granted, there was an increase in the amount of Peak Channels and the Average Number of Channels broadcasting the game, but that did not really help improve the viewership much. This perhaps points to the importance of big creators bringing in audiences for a lengthy period of time per stream session, and it’s a metric worth watching out for in the coming months.
Each day over the next five days saw a slight fall in these metrics, which is understandable given the competition from esports of games like LoL, Arena of Valor, and Rocket League. There is also the fatigue factor with every new arrival, a saturation point where audiences start taking a break or moving away from the game. While this is nowhere near happening for Hogwarts Legacy, the initial numbers were too good to be true, and the remainder of this month might give a better idea of how well the title performs in terms of retention and viewership.
Looking at Hogwarts Legacy’s reception and the hype surrounding it, we can expect it to continue pulling in high numbers over the next few months. Who knows, it might even convince a few big-name content creators to give up their usual haunts to give Hogwarts and its myriad hidden secrets a thorough sweep throughout 2023.