Players Are Already Abandoning the Game They Fought So Hard To Justify

Despite what felt like an ongoing war between transgender people and their allies asking gamers to boycott Hogwarts Legacy and the thousands of people buying, playing, and streaming the game anyway, it seems like any initial hype has completely died off. When Hogwarts Legacy was released in February, it snagged the top four bestselling spots on Steam and more than 800 thousand people played in its first weekend.

Now, it seems like most of the game’s most staunch defenders have abandoned it only a month after release. Last week, Twitch partner DaydreamerDan highlighted the fact that the number of active Hogwarts Legacy players has dropped from nearly 900 thousand to 75 thousand, with Twitch viewership dropping from 1.2 million to just 16 thousand.

According to Twitch analytics and statistics site SullyGnome, streamers and viewers continue to leave the game behind. Only 25.3 percent of Steam players have completed the game’s main storyline and received the achievement “The Hero of Hogwarts,” a feat that reportedly takes just 20–30 hours.

By comparison, last year’s Elden Ring takes approximately three times as long to complete the main story, but Twitch analytics show a far slower decline for both streams and viewers. Between 13 and 27 percent of Steam players have received achievements for one of its three endings.

Elden Ring is one of several first-person RPGs cited by Hogwarts Legacy defenders on Twitter who claim a low completion rate isn’t exclusive to the Potter title. Others note that games like these are much harder and therefore take longer to beat, or that there are more side quests and tasks to tackle that may be keeping players invested for longer. Regardless, such a severe drop in Hogwarts Legacy interest after just one month is embarrassing at best.

Prior to the release of Hogwarts Legacy, many called for a boycott due to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s anti-transgender comments, as well as rampant in-game anti-Semitism. This request was predictably met with resistance from those whose desire to run around a virtual Hogwarts casting spells apparently took precedence over real people’s lives, with many claiming that they wanted to support the game’s developers—but that also went sideways.

It seems the allure of Hogwarts doesn’t stand the test of time after all. Perhaps other fantasy RPGs that don’t put money into the pockets of a TERF would be better investments.

(featured image: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)