Hogwarts Legacy is making history. It was always expected to be a massive release, but its early numbers suggest that Avalanche Studios’ open-world Harry Potter game could end up the biggest game of 2023. That possibility is now looking increasingly likely as Hogwarts Legacy has set an incredible Twitch record on its first day of early access.
Shortly after its early access launch, Hogwarts Legacy managed to become the most-watched single-player game in Twitch history. According to TwitchTracker, Hogwarts Legacy was attracting 1.27m viewers from over 30,000 streamers. This includes a spectacular 1.9 million hours watched of Hogwarts Legacy on xQc’s channel alone. Some other popular streamers to get involved include lloJuan, Alanzoka, and Lirik.
Hogwarts Legacy has beaten the existing Twitch record by a good amount. The viewership record was previously held by Cyberpunk 2077, which attracted 1.14 million peak viewers back in December 2020. Hogwarts Legacy bested that by over 100,000 and is still attracting hundreds of thousands of viewers days after the initial record was set.
Hogwarts Legacy sets Twitch record in spite of the backlash
A big factor behind Hogwarts Legacy‘s success is its international appeal. Both the Wizarding World universe and Harry Potter are huge worldwide and not just popular in the West. It has a cult following in some of Asia’s biggest markets including Japan, Korea, and even China. Incredibly, the Twitch numbers alone probably understate Hogwarts Legacy‘s popularity. When you add on other streaming platforms like YouTube and international platforms such as Bilibili, there are few games that can compare with its viewership.
As with most popular games, Hogwarts Legacy‘s launch has not been without controversy. Previous transphobic comments made by Harry Potter’s author J.K. Rowling led some people to call for a boycott of Hogwarts Legacy. Although given its numbers on Twitch, that call appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
Screenshot via TwitchTracker.com
Published: Feb 10, 2023 12:00 pm