Image: WB Games
Nearly 500,000 Steam users are playing Hogwarts Legacy, shattering records before the game is even out.
It’s official: Hogwarts Legacy is a hit, and it technically isn’t even out yet. The open-world RPG set in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is only available in early access for anyone who pre-ordered its Deluxe Edition, before its official release on February 10. Even so, the game is shattering records with more than 489,000 concurrent players on Steam alone.
Anyone who forked up extra cash for Hogwarts Legacy’s Deluxe Edition received 72 hours of early access to the game, starting on February 7. A lot of players clearly went for that option, as the game has become a behemoth of a hit on Twitch and Steam. The game hasn’t breached Steam’s Top 100 as it technically isn’t out yet, but if it did, it would be the third most-played game on the platform behind DOTA 2 and ahead of PUBG.
These numbers will expand massively once the game launches, but they also point to Hogwarts Legacy’s already assured success. The game is WB Games’ biggest launch on Steam already, beating MultiVersus (which was free) by almost 300,000 all-time peak players. If we’re looking at paid single-player games, the game has already flown past Fallout 4’s player count (around 472,000) to be the third-biggest of all time, behind Elden Ring (around 950,000) and Cyberpunk 2077 (around 1 million). It could end up pulling ahead of both games in the weeks to come.
The game has already become the biggest singleplayer launch in Twitch history, with its concurrent viewership (1.2 million) soaring past Elden Ring (900,000) and God of War: Ragnarok (470,000). In overall viewership across the platform, it’s currently trailing behind Lost Ark and Rust in the Top 20. This level of fan fervour shouldn’t be all that surprising considering how massive the Harry Potter IP used to be, but it’s likely exceeding WB Games’ expectations all the same.
Hogwarts Legacy is also experiencing a staggered release across all platforms, which means that some players will get their hands on it much later than others. The PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC versions launch on February 10. On PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the game launches on April 4. On the Nintendo Switch, the game launches on July 25.