Hogwarts Legacy was one of the most hyped-up games before its release. Once it was launched, it blew up all over social media, especially Twitch. However, the game fits into the category of games that players get bored of quickly.
Not as Popular After Six Months
The game first launched back in early February, and given that it already had an existing fanbase for both the book series and the movies, it was a massive hit. Hogwarts Legacy became the highest-selling game this year so far.
It definitely helped with sales since the game was available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. At its peak, the game had 879,308 on Steam as mentioned in Kotaku, and that's not counting the players using consoles.
By March it dropped way down to 110,155 players, which is very far from its peak. By April, it dropped even more to 53,519. This month, the game has no more than 6,800 active players, a far cry from almost 880,000 when it was most played.
Sure, it's natural for games to eventually die down, especially for story-based RPG games that have nothing else to offer once the player finishes the final objective, but other popular games have not seen such a quick drop like Hogwarts Legacy.
It might have something to do with the author of the "Harry Potter" books it was based on, JK Rowling, who has been involved in controversies concerning her views on transgender people. It's that, or the fact that the game has been called repetitive by many players.
Unlike other story-based campaigns, fans argued that there's not much substance to the narrative surrounding the character. It also doesn't help that the combat mechanics tend to become monotonous over time.
One of its selling points is that long-time fans will finally experience what it's like to be a part of the wizarding world in a more immersive way, as well as attend the legendary school of wizarding and witchcraft, Hogwarts. It looks like it wasn't enough to keep players hooked anyway.
Compared to Other Popular Games
Finishing the game has not been a hindrance for other titles. In fact, one of the factors that critics judge a game with is its replay factor. Many would say that Hogwarts Legacy simply doesn't have that, unlike titles like Red Dead Redemption II or Grand Theft Auto V.
By comparison, RDR2 was released on Steam back in 2019. Its all-time peak was 70,914 players, which was recorded seven months ago. It's a much lower peak compared to Hogwarts Legacy, yet its current active players are still higher at 24,734 players.
Grand Theft Auto V was released on Steam back in 2015. Its peak number of concurrent players was 364,548 around eight years ago, according to SteamDB. Even with that much time passed, it still has 79,953 players right now, which proves that time does nothing if the games are good.
