It’s Utterly Depressing How Popular ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ Was

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It’s Utterly Depressing How Popular ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ Was

Yikes.

By Ana Valens Jan 18th, 2024, 5:15 pm



Was Hogwarts Legacy really the biggest game of 2023? In the U.S., at least, it apparently was. It’s a condemnation of the American games industry as a whole, and a sign that consumers really didn’t care about trans players’ feelings around the Harry Potter game.

New data shared by consumer analyst Circana reveals that the game was the best-selling video game of all of 2023, at least in terms of dollar sales. For some added context, Hogwarts Legacy launched on February 10, 2023 for PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X|S. The game had a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release several months later in May, followed by its Nintendo Switch debut in November.

Created by Avalanche Software in conjunction with Warner Bros. Games, it was met with swift controversy when it launched due to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s transphobic history. Despite this, the game promised an immersive ARPG setting that expanded the Harry Potter universe’s lore into the 19th century. Finally, fans could live out their dreams of attending Hogwarts as a real wizard or witch. That allure proved too tempting to resist, leading many gamers to spend their hard-earned cash on the game, per Circana’s data.

Was Hogwarts Legacy really that popular in 2023? According to data shared by Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, Hogwarts Legacy was the 2023’s best-selling game across U.S. physical and digital purchases on PlayStation, Steam, Xbox, and the Nintendo eShop. With data based on dollar amounts, Hogwarts Legacy led against Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 at second place, Madden NFL 24 at third, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 at fourth.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom hit fifth place, although digital sales were not factored into Circana’s data. Theoretically, that means Tears of the Kingdom might have sold more than Hogwarts Legacy. Granted, it’s worth keeping in mind that Hogwarts Legacy had a much higher audience reach due to its availability on multiple consoles. Additionally, per Google Trends, Hogwarts saw a higher peak for Google search queries than Zelda. In other words, it’s totally plausible that Hogwarts Legacy still remained the number one game of the year, even with Tears of the Kingdom’s digital sales factored in.

Hogwarts Legacy topped Google as the most searched game of 2023 in the U.S., and in terms of revenue, it was the second most popular Steam game for 2023—beaten only by Baldur’s Gate 3 (no surprise there). Screen Rant was quick to note Hogwarts Legacy’s success in December 2023, pointing out that the ARPG surpassed Call of Duty as the best-selling game of 2023, unseating CoD for the first time in five years.

Hogwarts Legacy: a depressing tale for trans gamers

Yes, Hogwarts Legacy was the biggest game of 2023. Which is quite depressing. Trans gamers asked their fellow players to avoid playing the game last February, noting that Hogwarts Legacy would sanitize J.K. Rowling’s image, further increase the cultural power her IP has in the world, and embolden bigots who purposefully purchased the game to show their support for Rowling—all while the Harry Potter creator continues to spout transphobic drivel on her Twitter account. Meanwhile, others alleged the game had a serious problem with antisemitic tropes, while controversy stirred around the game’s seemingly shoehorned trans character.

All this criticism and more, however, did little to stem the nostalgia for the Harry Potter series. I remember playing a Valorant match in February 2023, and after a player asked if I was trans, she requested my permission to purchase Hogwarts Legacy—you know, despite all the controversy around J.K. Rowling. In her eyes, it was just a game. When I politely dismissed the question to avoid transphobic harassment, saying I didn’t really care what she did with her money, she was pleased with my response—more or less calling me “one of the good ones.”

I suspect most gamers feel the same way as that random Valorant girl. It’s, after all, easy for a cis person to excuse what they do with their money. It doesn’t really matter. It’s just a toy! Some trans people just have too much free time on their hands to complain! Say what you want, Hogwarts Legacy fans, but your support for the game is damning: a clear sign that people won’t listen to trans gamers’ boycott requests if the product in question is too alluring to avoid.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Holy fuck dude let it go.

Like "GamerGate", TDS, and Jan 6, that's probably not gonna happen anytime soon with SJWs.

 

[Male Idiot]

I hate Harry Potter goyslop but I hate trannies more.

 

[Testacles Maximus]

It’s a condemnation of the American games industry as a whole

No, the condemnation of the American games industry is that we can barely even own our games these days and they keep dying, not a bunch of people who want to pretend to be wizards or dragons or whatever the fuck harry potter is about.

 

[Balr0g]

I am just waiting for articles like "Hogwarts Legacy is literally the Hitler of video games!"

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

And yet it was still snubbed at the rigged woke faggot shit Game Awards.

 

[Positron]

a sign that consumers really didn’t care about trans players’ feelings around the Harry Potter game.

What are "trans players" doing in a game that murders trannies in real life?

 

[Pokemon Conquistador]

I have a friend who is fairly liberal and (of course) a harry potter fan. When we were hanging out she saw my younger brother playing this game she had to restrain herself from grabbing the controller from his hands, and when he let her play she was going nuts over all the lore and exploring hogwarts.

Within the next week she bought herself a a copy of the game, and asked me to help her set up her brother's old PS4. When I teased her about being a transphobe for buying the game she just paused for a second and said "I have waited far to long to play a game like this to let a bunch of whiny bitches ruin my fun. If playing this game makes me a transphobe, then I guess I'm a transphobe"

The troons picked a losing battle on this one, most of the liberal white women who grew up on Harry Potter would gladly tell them they will never be a real woman if it meant another book or in this case game set in the Potterverse.

White women will nearly snap their spines in half bending over backwards trying to virtue signal, as long as it doesn't affect any of their favorite pet activities.

 

[Programmer Socks]

It’s a condemnation of the American games industry as a whole, and a sign that consumers really didn’t care about trans players’ feelings around the Harry Potter game.

Of all the shit that people have to worry about and deal with on a daily basis, a cult of terminally online men in dresses and cat ears getting bent out of shape about a wizard videogame is not going to rank very highly. Sorry!

 

[Clem Fandango]

The troons picked a losing battle on this one, most of the liberal white women who grew up on Harry Potter would gladly tell them they will never be a real woman if it meant another book or in this case game set in the Potterverse.

I think you nailed it. I bought the game out of spite, but I don't really care about Harry Potter and got bored with it pretty fast (although the graphics are pretty nice on PS5). My wife though? She's on like her 3rd playthrough. The extremely basic puzzles and combat are perfect for someone who doesn't really play video games. She loves it.

 

[Desu Mountain]

Because we didn't. We still don't. And we never will.

I care about their feelings, just not in the way they want.

 

[Angry Alt Right Nerd]

I think it's depressing too because you know most of the people who bought this are manchildren.

 

[behindyourightnow]

I’m amused trannies are still seething about this game nearly a year later, but was it really that popular? Least in my experience I heard people raving about it for like a month or so then silence. Doesn’t seem like it left much of a lasting impression aside from causing troons to have an autistic meltdown.

It's normies. Harry Potter is still really, really big among normies. They've been playing it this whole time without creating much of a ripple online. Kind of like how the Avatar sequels managed to make 11 trillion dollars without a single too-online person ever mentioning them.

If you had made me guess what the most popular game of the year was I would have said Tears of the Kingdom, but I guess that has a smaller player base that just talks about it more in the circles I'm aware of.

White women will nearly snap their spines in half bending over backwards trying to virtue signal, as long as it doesn't affect any of their favorite pet activities.

For a group that spends their lives whining about being marginalized minorities, troons sure do act surprised when people, you know, marginalize them.

 

[Don't Tread on Me]

i watched a few reviews and gameplay videos and it just seems like a boring, standard RPG with a Harry Potter theme slapped on. nothing special, but seemed solid enough for what it was

i'm still not interested in playing it but it was tempting to buy a copy just to add to the gigantic sales numbers that trannies were seething and dilating over

Take it from someone who actually played the game. Legacy has a lot of faults but "boring" is DEFINITELY not one of them. You can fly literally anywhere on your broom, you get to learn the Unforgivable Curses, and you have your own room with almost infinite customization options.

You can spend hours autistically designing the perfect space for you to garden, capture hippogriffs and feed and breed them, then head into an arena where Dark Wizards, goblins and trolls spawn in waves and there are literally no consequences for you torturing them with Crucio or AOE Avada Kedavraing them.

Best game of last year, I haven't beaten a game so quickly in ages.

 

[TowinKarz]

Read a different book.
Play a different game.

Annoy a different public.

 

[pikachudidnothingwrong]

Cope, seethe and dilate!

It really is heartening to hear though.. We knew it was a smashing success but this just adds to the greatness. It seriously answered the question of whether the masses "not caring" only worked against censorship or woke/SJ shit in games. Nope, they just generally don't give a fuck. I don't think people generally understand how important this actually was in the history of media (at least gaming) propaganda and virtue signaling. It BTFO the narrative that modern gaming was staying "relevant" because of it's ideological messaging and virtue signalling. But that was utterly smashed, CRUSHED, after this game. A sad reflection of just how cucked western gaming, media and business really is that this was the first and only real test of the narrative. And it was all thanks to TRAs and allies hysterically overreaching hard, going all-in and then doubling down! It would have been just another blip that could be argued either way without that.

If they were smart they would understand that people play games to have fun, relax and escape a little bit. That the last thing they want to do is virtue signal or worry about little pet progressive issues or degenerate feels. Same with political, social and real world issues in general. I want to think about whether or not an evil wizard is using his magic to take over the universe or something.. Not whether the main cast perfectly reflects the "correct" and "ideal" racial makeup of real life society or some other such bullshit. Fuck real life, fuck social issues and fuck realism while we are at it!

 

[Bland Crumbs]

I have a friend who is fairly liberal and (of course) a harry potter fan. When we were hanging out she saw my younger brother playing this game she had to restrain herself from grabbing the controller from his hands, and when he let her play she was going nuts over all the lore and exploring hogwarts.

Within the next week she bought herself a a copy of the game, and asked me to help her set up her brother's old PS4. When I teased her about being a transphobe for buying the game she just paused for a second and said "I have waited far to long to play a game like this to let a bunch of whiny bitches ruin my fun. If playing this game makes me a transphobe, then I guess I'm a transphobe"

The troons picked a losing battle on this one, most of the liberal white women who grew up on Harry Potter would gladly tell them they will never be a real woman if it meant another book or in this case game set in the Potterverse.

Every choice the troon makes is a losing one until they finally realize they are not x stuck in a y.

 

[Lidl Drip]

It is a good game, I enjoyed it a lot. Ana Valens, the author of this article, is famous for saying that troons should get to randomly rape women in the street and that he wants TERFs to be forced into "breeding camps" where they also get raped by troons.

 

[SpergioLeonne]

Take it from someone who actually played the game. Legacy has a lot of faults but "boring" is DEFINITELY not one of them. You can fly literally anywhere on your broom, you get to learn the Unforgivable Curses, and you have your own room with almost infinite customization options.

You can spend hours autistically designing the perfect space for you to garden, capture hippogriffs and feed and breed them, then head into an arena where Dark Wizards, goblins and trolls spawn in waves and there are literally no consequences for you torturing them with Crucio or AOE Avada Kedavraing them.

Best game of last year, I haven't beaten a game so quickly in ages.

I mean, it’s ok. Combat is kinda simple if you’re used to min/max style games, but it’s not bad.

Flying was impressive in Morrowind twenty something years ago

Hint to spergs who want to kill things in a game that’s already easy to kill things.. just go full ancient magic throw buffs and throw goblin projectiles back at them. If you run out of things to throw, transfigure enemies into barrels and throw them.

 

[Terror Sandwich]

nooo you can't like something by somebody who says women can't have penises nooooo

Author's a troon

View attachment 5689556

Not only he is a troon, but he also has a youtube channel where he roleplays as an anime girl succubus and talks about porn.

 

[pot of sneed]

Troons BTFO!