Days before Hogwarts Legacy finally hits store shelves, the wizarding RPG has broken one of Twitch's biggest records.
Avalanche Software's open-world Harry Potter adventure has been a hot-button topic as the title has approached its official release.
The game has sparked controversy, as almost everything Wizarding World related does, with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling's transphobic and hateful statements coming up yet again in conversations (something the game has directly addressed). This has caused conflict both internal and external over fans' purchasing decisions for the game.
All that was made even more complicated when Hogwarts Legacy received mainly positive reviews, debuting at an 86 on Metacritic. This Rowling controversy and the generally favorable reviews have caused a spike in interest for the title, something that has been reflected all over the internet.
Hogwarts Legacy Breaks a Twitch Record
With influencers and live-streamers getting their hands on Hogwarts Legacy a few days early, the title has broken a viewership record on Twitch.
On February 7, the Harry Potter RPG broke the concurrent viewership record for a single-player game on the live-streaming platform, peaking at 1.27 million concurrent viewers.
Avalanche Software's wizarding epic surpassed the previous record holder, Cyberpunk 2077, which peaked at 1.14 million viewers back in December 2020.
Other names on the list include mega-hits like Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarök, putting the game among some of the biggest hits in recent memory.
The full list of the top 10 single-player viewership numbers can be seen below:
- Hogwarts Legacy - 1.27 million concurrent viewers
- Cyberpunk 2077 - 1.14 million concurrent viewers
- Elden Ring - 910k concurrent viewers
- Resident Evil: Village - 655k concurrent viewers
- The Last of Us Part II - 508k concurrent viewers
- God of War Ragnarök - 478k concurrent viewers
- Pokémon Legends: Arceus - 478k concurrent viewers
- Twelve Minutes - 363k concurrent viewers
- The Quarry - 355k concurrent viewers
- Resident Evil 2 - 314k concurrent viewers
Why So Much Interest in Hogwart Legacy?
Hogwarts Legacy has been an object of fascination amongst fans since it was first announced more than two years ago. For Harry Potter fans a game like this has been a bit of a pipe dream, finally allowing Potter-heads to live out their fantasies of attending Hogwarts.
So there were already going to be eyes on this title from the get-go. However, add in the fact that people are questioning whether they want to buy the game because of the circumstances surrounding the franchise's creator, and that combines a fascinating slurry of interest from all parties.
People want to see what this game is all about. Sure, the team behind it has done a pretty good job of showing off what gamers can and can't expect in the title.
But with the controversy surrounding the game, even those who would have never tuned in to see what Hogwarts Legacy was all about are not checking in, for good reasons or not.
Seeing all this, it makes sense that the RPG broke the record that it did.
Hogwarts Legacy comes to PlayStation 5, Xbox, and PC on Friday, February 10.
