Warner Bros. Games has announced that Hogwarts Legacy has now surpassed 40 million units across all the platforms it's available on (PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S and X, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2). It is unclear whether they are counting the free redemptions of Epic Games Store's promotion (which ends in a few hours, so hurry if you're interested in adding the game to your library). We've asked WB Games and will update this post if they respond.
Avalanche Software's open world action/adventure game set in the Wizarding World launched in February 2023 to very positive critical and fan reviews, despite a call to boycott it due to Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling's (who had no direct involvement with the game) views on transgender people.
It didn't take long for Hogwarts Legacy to start breaking sales records:
- Just a couple of weeks after launch, Warner Bros. Games confirmed that it became the best-selling launch ever in the publisher's history;
- By May 2023, it had sold over 15 million units and earned more than one billion dollars at retail alone;
- By January 2024, WB Games said Hogwarts Legacy had surpassed 22 million units and established itself as the best-selling game of 2023 in a year full of triple-A releases;
- Later that month, the publisher could confirm a new sales milestone, 24 million units, while also announcing new features coming with patches and also that previously exclusive PlayStation content would be available elsewhere, too;
- By November 2024, Hogwarts Legacy had passed the threshold of 30 million units, and the publisher predictably confirmed that a sequel was their biggest priority.
Earlier in 2024, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier had reported that a Definitive Edition was in the works with the help of Rocksteady (Batman: Arkham trilogy, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League). The goal was to add between 10 and 15 hours of new content, but eventually, the publisher worried that the amount of new stuff wouldn't be enough to justify their estimated asking price of $30 and canceled this edition.
Still, Hogwarts Legacy 2 is absolutely coming, and based on rumors, it's not going to be a game-as-a-service, even though Warner Bros. execs previously made it very clear that they were looking to transfer this level of success to an ongoing live service game. That's likely going to be a separate project.
It's worth noting that even with the outstanding sales performance of Avalanche Software's game, Warner Bros. Games had to shut down several studios (Monolith Productions, Player First Games, San Diego Studio) and restructure around its four key franchises (Mortal Kombat, DC, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones). Ultimately, everything will be up to the winning company in the bidding war between Netflix and Paramount Skydance, with the former already making it clear that WB Games is just a nice bonus, as far as they're concerned, in the megadeal.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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