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Right, we always suspected that Hogwarts Legacy would sell extremely well given the popularity of the IP, and that sentiment is already starting to ring true. While only limited sales data is available right now — these findings are based on physical sales in the UK — the game is off to flying start.
First off, Hogwarts Legacy is officially the biggest Harry Potter video game launch ever in the UK. While Portkey's launch week only just pipped the biggest week for 2001's The Philosophers Stone (by 2%), a few key factors make this even more impressive.
One of them being that this is pure physical sales data in the UK, with digital excluded from these initial findings. Of course, the 2001 title launched when digital distribution wasn't a thing at all - in 2023 digital sales will have taken up a huge chunk of Hogwarts Legacy sales.
Also, this is purely a current-gen console and PC launch right now; the PS4 and Xbox One versions arrive later on April 4th. Those systems have huge install bases, and a series like Harry Potter should sell gangbusters on those platforms as well. It's all looking good for Portkey and WB Games then!
One final point is that, compared to February 2022's biggest game in the form of Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy has performed very, very well. The Harry Potter RPG has sold 80% more UK physical copies in its launch week than Elden Ring managed last February.
Once digital figures roll in we should have a clearer understanding of the scale of Hogwarts Legacy's success, but for now, initial data suggests that this game could end up being one of the biggest sellers of the year.
Are you at all surprised by this news? Let us know down below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 62
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going to be biggest seller of year.
xbox looks like its potentially sold more XSS in UK, as it sold 80% on ps5.
obv no digital, but wonder what has ps5 players buying physical, but not XSX owners.
I'm really happy about this, and hopefully it means more games like this in the future.
Only a couple hours in but it’s looking good so far. Hopefully the return of the licensed game! I do miss those (not that they have gone completely).
@stvevan Physical is one of the few things that Playstation does better than Xbox. If the game is smart delivery you only get the Xbox One version on the disc i believe; but with PS5 you would be buying the PS5 disc. In this case that shouldn’t matter since Hogwarts Legacy is not a smart delivery game and Series X has it’s own on-disc version but I guess it has contributed, along with Gamepass and the Series S, to a mindset to just go digital on Xbox. Plus you can get digital Xbox codes cheaper and they do refunds, and they support good BC etc; so digital on Xbox is much better than on PS.
Glad this game is selling so well.
Awesome achievement. Not even an HP fan, but game looks absolutely fantastic!
Good to see such strong sales figures and people enjoying the game. I don’t think anything else will come close to this game for sales this year. It’s also great seeing people ignoring the very vocal minority who tried to boycott the game.
Very happy for the thousand plus developers that spent years of their lives working on this, only for it to be seemingly derailed by one woman's online ramblings. They deserve their moment.
Well done Avalanche Studios & thank you for making a brilliant game.
‘You’re a licence to print money Harry’
@themightyant This is exactly how i see it as well. All those devolopers put their passion for the world into this game and it shows. It's such a beautiful and detailed word and I'm absolutely loving it.
@themightyant exactly. Nikatine should be ashamed of the ridiculous actions they've taken in trying to derail this game.
As amazing as Elden Ring is, let's not forget that it probably has a limited target audience compared to HP which has the books and films behind it; it's always going to outsell the competition.
@uptownsoul they should, by significant margin. There are more digital-only Xbox consoles sold than disc-capable. It’s the complete inverse on PS5.
Logic would dictate there are more digital sales than disc sales on Xbox, opposed to the PS5
@Sakisa Agreed.
It's a great game and definitely does JK Rowling's world justice, they really knocked it out of the park. It's interesting that we're comparing the sales to GRR Martin involved Elden Ring, it's a battle of ultra popular fantasy authors.
I think HP is generally more accessible than ER. Also HP has a huge fan base… so this is not surprising at all. I don’t pay $70 for game or I would be playing it. But once it goes on sale.
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I think the game will easily sell around 10 million copies within a month or two. Lifetime sales could potentially cross over 25 million. Of course, that's just my prediction.
@uptownsoul @Carck I don't see why we even care. It's no secret that PS5 is the lead console - especially in the UK where Sony might as well have a spot in the government as much influence as it has in that country.
So, yes, it will sell more on PS5. No need to hate or chest-thump that PS5 is God or something. Nor is it a reason to hate on the Series consoles like they are nothing.
It's a multi-console release - play where you want to play it.
@Carck Xbox has a digital console and a disc console, so does PS5. PS5 sold way more consoles so i doubt the figures will change much.
Will it get accolades from Press or nominations at the Game Awards or will it be the elephant in the room all year? Talk about the silent majority...
@Benjamin outside of public votes probably nothing.
sadly its hard to see how any would risk the backlash.
hardly anyone buys discs games on xbox as they have incentivised going digital by Gamepass and Microsoft rewards.
I if I buy a game i buy it digitally using my rewards points
Does this surprise literally anyone? What's next Star Wars merch outselling Firefly?
@stvevan FWIW, I think there's just more of a "physical media culture" on PS or maybe reverse, more of a digital media culture on Xbox.
Games tend to be larger to download, services tend to be more oriented on digital content, upgrades, etc + Game Pass on XB, so it's a little self-selecting where you're probably not as likely to get into the XSX ecosystem if you don't have internet capable of going all digital or don't have a desire to. Similarly if you have bad internet or just love physical, I'd generally never suggest anyone get an XB, PS is the only real choice, though, honestly, these days, I don't think I'd recommend either and just tell someone to get a Switch.
Personally, as a former "pry my physical media from my cold dead hands" sort of player, I was all tied to Sony, but really mostly Nintnendo because my internet sucked. As soon as I got good internet, I decided I either wanted back into PC or into Xbox as an all digital console. Then ended up liking that so much I went all digital everywhere.
It's kind of funny how the people going on about how insignificant Xbox's sales ratios are compared to PS are the same people who feel the ABK merger will create unfair monopolies that Sony must be protected from. You guys do realize you're literally arguing in agreement with Microsoft's entire point, right?
It’s a fantastic game so I’m glad that it’s doing well! Great graphics and gameplay.
@jordan1992 thanks for the input Last of Us avatar
@stvevan what is the expected backlash of praising one of the best selling most beloved games of the year? At which point should we start ignoring the 30 twitter users that continue to be outraged at things that have nothing to do with the things they are angry about?
@Carck because in this day and age companies are scared of backlash.
look if entertainment awards dont have minority/women in a category. theres uproar.
not saying any of it is correct, or it should be ignored, just my feeling it will be.
@NEStalgia it’s bizarre. They gloat about dominating physical game sales with a smug smile, 80% vs 18%, in this case and then go on to publicly support the dominating company against another company arguing that market dominance is a bad thing 🤣
Let’s be clear, for the full picture, we need digital sales also. I’d hazard a guess that with digital included PlayStation still dominate by at least 60/40 vs Xbox when it comes to sales of multiplatorm games. That’s a conservative guess I have a feeling the margin could be wider.
I really don’t think they care about market consolidation or the issue of one company dominating over another, as long as it’s their brand that’s dominating.
@Fenbops sony is still the same company that celebrated kicking Sega off the hardware space, assuming Nintendo would be next (before MS showed up). Their fans share the same mindset.
@Carck yep good point and a lot won’t accept that it was Sony who had a major role in ending SEGAs role in the hardware market.
Great news for them! Glad to see our gamer base increase in general, can only mean good things for the entire industry.
The Ps5 physical version has like 10 gb on it , the rest has to be downloaded, it's mainly digital also
bought it physical on Xbox also for my dau
ghters birthday, mainly because it was way cheaper than on the Xbox store 53 Euro's including sending
elden ring is better, but i am damn impressed w hogwarts so far. Really is the dream video game in that universe i've wanted since i was a kid. Team green ftw
Hardly surprising
@Fenbops Yeah, I mean there's a few factors there, mostly it's about "my team winning" as the most important thing. Second it's about "my product choice has all the advantages and I don't want to have to concede that there are advantages to having a different product, I want it all consolidated on the one product I bought" (which is somewhat self defeating because that means paying premium for everything which in the end may cost more than just buying both products to begin with....but logic and humans don't always go together.)
Then there's the misguided belief that all that surplus profit will, instead of being returned to investors, will just go into funding low to no ROI creativity projects for the sake of art, so an unchallenged massively profitable monopoly will yield only better and more amazing games since all that mtx money will just go into funding Days Gone 2 and, Knack 3 because why not, it's just extra money sitting around. Which is exactly how business works if you're a hippie living in 1967. Only if you're living in 1967 though because all the actual hippies then became the silicon valley tech titans that delivered us to the utopian feudalistic corporate republic. Make profits not war (unless it generates profits)!
A lot of it is just general hating Microsoft because of either hating big silicon valley tech conglomerates (which is a good cause) or just hating Microsoft specifically because some people think it's 1998 still and think Bill Gates still runs the company (seriously, not a joke!) I tend to think if Disney were buying ABK to become a gaming powerhouse the reaction wouldn't be as negative as simply being Microsoft.
Sega....they're not totally wrong on that. Sega really did a lot (and I mean a LOT) of damage to themselves. Sony landed the finishing move with that price cut. That took Sega's shred of hope and buried it. And Sony, by being the big corporate behemoth could easily undercut Sega on hardware, no exceptions. BUT, I think Sega had all the public mindshare in the early-to-mid 90's and Sony had absolutely none, it was Sega's to lose up to that point, and they absolutely did.
Anecdotally, I was a Nintendo+Sega multiplat fan, didn't see the appeal of a Sony console "from a VCR maker" at all, when you could get "real" games from Nintendo and Sega. I owned a 32X for like 5 days before realizing it was trash and returned it. Never bothered with Sega CD, then was barely aware of Saturn's existence because they blew it badly (and half the good content was Japan-only because the console did terribly elsewhere), of course FF and the Chrono Trigger sequel on PS drew my attention there quickly, and by the time Dreamcast came out......Sega'd already moved to last place. It was a self inflicted fall from grace, merely helped along by a ruthless Sony.
I still think if Sega hadn't screwed up their own affairs, Sony would have had a hard time maneuvering between Nintendo and Sega. Sega opened the window for them. Sony could undercut them on hardware, but Sega still had brand power in games.
@Sebatrox Probably the more practical way to put it is "XSS as a ratio of Series sales is much greater than PS5AD as a ratio of PS5 sales", therefore digital sales are likely to make up a larger portion of Series sales overall than digital on PS5 sales. Someone mentioned a 70% digital sales rate on both platforms but that's not quite right because it doesn't reflect full game sales just the total sales (including indie, DLC, mtx/currency etc.) IIRC Xbox was somewhere over 80% from a report last year, and PS was just north of 60% in "full game digital sales" (caveat, that may still include indie, which is full game, but digital only which skews the numbers again.) It will be interesting if the rumored discless PS5 "Slim" is real, as that will make the digital console the default console for everyone unless they spend more on a disc drive. A LOT of people will do that, but I think we'd see a massive pivot toward PS5 digital purchases. Not that it wasn't the majority already, but I mean a pivot more toward Xbox ratios. Meanwhile we see Nintendo (US) with raising prices to $70 but offering the 2 for $99 vouchers again, meaning they're heavily incentivizing digital and penalizing physical. Between XSS, PS5 Slim, and Nintendo pricing, we might be at the true last gasp of physical media, achieving Matrick's goal but this time by consumer choice for saving money. Though ironically that could benefit cloud as I can see more people's internet being capable of video streaming games than downloading 80GB games with caps.
Still this is a game with mass market casual appeal which I'd assume would naturally sell quite a bit more on PS than XB, plus PS has their paid exclusive content in it, and I presume marketing rights, swinging even many dual-platform owners toward the PS version, which, of course goes right back ABK helping competition.
@Sebatrox says who? There’s nothing online saying this. And it can’t be by a lot seen as PS5 sold way more than Xbox as a whole this gen.
@Xiovanni It seems very faithful to her works, which is probably why it's a good game.
@Xiovanni Well we're looking at the sales being off to a strong start so sure, that checks out.
@Sebatrox i’m talkin bout Series S and PS5 digital sales.
@Sebatrox probably skews the numbers a bit going off Japanese sales for xbox. Are there numbers for consoles sold in North America?
Just came back to say the latest Jimquisition hit the nail on the head about this game.
@jordan1992 I get what you mean, xbox has a better digital to physical ratio for the series consoles but the PlayStation 5 digital has still sold more than the series S, meaning people who say xbox players mainly buy digital as there's more digital only console players than playstation is a load of rubbish.
@Sebatrox so more PS5 digital than Xbox Series S??? 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
@Fenbops why? Because Playstation 1 outsold Dreamcast???
@Fenbops I think everybody is sick and tired of the cancel culture and everyone who is a part of it. They just want to have fun with Harry Potter.
I’m pleased the online rambling of an ill informed, bonedheaded sexist misogynistic gaming media didn’t actually cause the reported “backlash”.
They kept shouting about it the backlash. Even didn’t cover it as much as they would usually, due to the backlash. Put ridiculous statements out, saying they disagreed with views they hadn’t read and didn’t understand, jumped to massive conclusions and then when the game sold bucket loads they’ve run loads of stories for clicks. Haha.
Modern gaming media for you.
I’m glad it sold well and so many are enjoying it.
Well deserved.
It's funny because I just got back into gaming recently and I bought Elden Ring on sale, and after about 10h of gameplay I dropped it, because all you do in it is kill kill kill, with little storyline going on... then that led me to thinking and then committing to buying HL Deluxe, and glad I did, it's much better imo!
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@JayJ yeah man. I just hope a lesson has been learnt, you can ignore the vocal crazy mob and still be successful. The media also don’t matter, people just want to play games.
@jordan1992 Put simply yes. I suggest you read @NEStalgia excellent post going into much more detail about why though.
A few thousand boycotted the game, and a few million brought it. A shock to nobody outside of the twitter and gaming media echo chamber.
@dreadful When it comes to opposing corporations and wealthy people for literally anything, we are all “those” powerless people.
@Darylb88 @Fenbops
Yup, this is all proving what a small world today's media scene has become. They keep doubling down hard on things that are popular among the typical Twitter/Reddit crowd, yet the overwhelming majority of the general public seems to be opposed to it. Makes you wonder why they keep doubling down so hard.
@SAH77777 Yeah I couldn't agree more, as someone who always loved open world action RPG's like the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series, I struggled to get into Elden Ring. I think it's for the reason you described, because there is really nothing to the world besides trying to kill everything you come across. Like there is no society or anything to really interact with, all you do is wander around aimlessly and kill things. To top it off they have some odd obsession with punishing difficulty, so that put me off as well.
@JayJ Great minds think alike
@Sakisa have you boycotted gamepass because Microsoft paid for high on life to launch on it & Justin Roiland is a POS or are you just being a hypocrite
@Sebatrox outsells Series console almost 2-1 but a flop!!?? 🤦♂️🤦♂️😂😂😂😂😂
@Sebatrox so PS5 hasn’t massively outsold Series console? Dude i promise ya, ya wrong!! It has!!
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