Last year was huge for video games with the release of a plethora of AAA games. Some studio heads blamed the crowded release windows for the poor commercial performance of their games. Nevertheless, Hogwarts Legacy managed to outshine the rest, shipping 22 million copies, according to Warner Bros.
“But it’s not just the unit sold that I’m so proud of, it’s just that it delighted the fans so much,” said David Haddad, President of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, during an interview with Variety last month.
“It brought Harry Potter to life in a new way for gamers where they could be themselves in this world, in this story. And that’s what the team at Avalanche set out to do when they were developing the game and I think that’s really why it resonated so well and remains the best-selling game of the year in the entire industry worldwide.”
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Back in January, research firm Circana revealed that Hogwarts Legacy outsold The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in the United States. However, since Nintendo doesn’t reveal digital sales of its games outside of its financial year, many were left to speculate about the actual number of copies Zelda shipped globally.
With that information now in the wild, following the release of Nintendo’s financial results, it has become clear that indeed Hogwarts Legacy was the most-sold game in 2023. Tears of the Kingdom sold 20.28 million copies which left it behind Hogwarts Legacy.
However, a direct comparison of the sales figures of both games may not be ideal. Hogwarts Legacy was released in February while Tears of the Kingdom was released three months after. Also, while Hogwarts Legacy was available on multiple platforms, Tears of the Kingdom was a Switch exclusive.
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Throughout last year, Hogwarts Legacy consistently topped charts around the globe. The staggered release strategy might have helped the game to remain on the front burner. It was first released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC before making it to last-gen consoles and Nintendo Switch.
Hogwarts Legacy pulled in crazy statistics
Apart from being the most-sold game in 2023, Hogwarts Legacy also pulled other interesting statistics. According to Haddad, players spent 707 million hours playing the game. Also, many played through the game more than once, choosing a different Hogwarts house each time to experience a different storyline. Other interesting Hogwarts Legacy statistics that Haddad revealed include;
- 819 million portions brewed
- 3 billion magical plants harvested
- 593 million magical beasts rescued
- 9 billion dark wizards were defeated within the halls of the virtual wizarding school
What Hogwarts Legacy achieved is phenomenal when you look at the broader picture. This was the first time in 15 years that a game that was not Call of Duty or made by Rockstar topped the annual sales chart in the United States. The last game to achieve that feat was Rock Band in 2008.
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The success of Hogwarts Legacy has already inspired Waner Bros. to follow up on its success with Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions which was revealed last April. The game is based on the iconic magical sports that fans of the franchise thought would be a huge part of Hogwarts Legacy. It has been confirmed for PCs and consoles but no release date yet.
“We don’t have any particular announcements on exactly how and when [the Quidditch game] is going to come to the market, but we are working to get it designed in a way just to delight fans,” Haddad said.
The game is currently in beta-testing phase. Haddad also mentioned that Warner Bros. has several unannounced projects and “will let the fans be part of this world and stories and characters in deeper and deeper ways”.
