Hogwarts Legacy 6 Months Later: Anyone Still Playing?

Hogwarts Legacy It launched on February 10 of this year and was an instant sales hit—so much so that it’s still the best-selling game of 2023, even with The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom’s Tears into the mix. Although the exclusivity switch is likely part of the reason zelda Can’t catch up with the controversial Hogwarts Legacy, there is no denying that the charming RPGs of Warner Bros. Games has been financially successful. But does anyone still play it??

Hogwarts Legacy It initially launched for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, then in May for PS4 and Xbox One (a Nintendo Switch version is due in November). The game was embroiled in conflict even before it hit storefronts thanks to its connections to JK Rowling, who wrote Harry Potter book series (and owns its own IP) that used its massive platform For spreading anti-trans rhetoric for years.

Many sites refused to cover the game, some tried to cover the basics, and others just went all out. While there’s no denying its initial success (it was Incredibly popular on Twitchhas quickly become a sales hit and, at the time of writing, is It is still the best selling game in 2023), the interest that was once in the wizarding world of RPG seems to have disappeared.

Read more: Hogwarts Legacy Doesn’t take a moral stand

according to SteamDB, which tracks the number of Steam streamers and Twitch viewersAnd Hogwarts Legacy It reached its all-time peak concurrent player (879,308) just two days after its launch. By the beginning of March, the number had dropped to an average of 110,155 players. By April it was less than half that, with player numbers peaking at 53,519 and averaging around 38,000. As of August 10, the average number of players was around 6,800.

Although there is still activity Hogwarts Legacy subreddit, seems to be mostly dedicated to getting help with bugs and wondering about potential downloadable content (which I’ll note, The developer said there are no plans to). There’s occasionally a nice screenshot and nods to what might be easter eggs, but the top spots amount to several hundred upvotes, instead of the roughly 10,000 upvotes awarded to those shared shortly after the game’s launch.

A large number of games see a drop in player count a few weeks or months after they come out – in an industry where many big releases can happen in the space of a month (October 2023 really wants you to say goodbye to your social life), there is a natural ebb and flow of interest. This is especially true of story-driven campaign games as opposed to live-service games that can live indefinitely. But the steep decline of Hogwarts Legacypopular (Which people were referring to way back in March) most likely because Redundant RPG systems in the game and monotonous fights — and that once players get over the “you can finally be a Hogwarts student” appeal, they realize that this game is almost paper-thin as Nick.

There is not much to do Hogwarts Legacy exceed a certain point. Traveling through the Scottish Highlands means engaging in the same three enemy encounters, taking part in one of about 100 ridiculously redundant Merlin trials, and opening chests containing the same unsightly outfits you’ve been rocking since the beginning. Roaming through Hogwarts means spamming Revelio looking for a piece of paper, a winged key to fly over your head, or some other bountiful collectible to collect for a disappointing reward. I’ll admit I got sucked into a semi-satisfying gameplay loop for about ten hours before settling in and bouncing out of the game with so much force you’d think I had my Knockback jinx.

At a certain point, I got tired of running into similar enemies in search of a shiny chest just to get the mediocre cosmetics I was already wearing. I Not connected to the storyany I felt at odds with Hogwarts LegacyRPG elementsand became Increasingly uncomfortable with her bizarre stance on animal rescue. I turned it off a few weeks after it was released and haven’t touched it since.

maybe Hogwarts LegacyAn upcoming Switch release or potential DLC may renew interest in the game, but I think even new players will quickly find all its filler, no killer.