Hogwarts Legacy breaks Twitch record on first day of Early Access

Warner Bros.’ Hogwarts Legacy, which released this week amid significant controversy, has broken the record for the most concurrent viewers on Twitch for a single-player game.

On the game’s first day of availability via Early Access (only those who purchased the $80 / £75 Deluxe Edition can play before February 10), the Avalanche Software-developed RPG – which had already topped pre-order charts in the weeks up to release – peaked at 1.3 million concurrent viewers, beating the 1.1 million record achieved by Cyberpunk 2077 in December 2020.

According to Ginx.tv figures, only online titles Valorant (1.72m in April 2020), League of Legends (1.78m in November 2019) and Fortnite (2.3m. in June 2020) have attracted more viewers for a single game.

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The viewership record was likely partly achieved due to planned Twitch Drops, which gave viewers the chance to unlock late-game gear early by watching 20 minutes of the official launch stream on Tuesday only.

Hogwarts Legacy, which is based on the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, is releasing this week amid significant controversy around the publicly-stated views of its author regarding transgender rights.

The game is the subject of a boycott due to multiple public comments from Rowling perceived by many to be transphobic (for a full breakdown of the situation, we recommend this article by Glamour).

The author’s comments have inspired Harry Potter movie actors, including leads Emma Watson and Eddie Redmayne, to publicly voice their support for the transgender community.

And one of the internet’s largest independently-owned video game forums, Resetera, banned Hogwarts Legacy threads entirely, due to what it called “bigoted” comments made by Rowling.

Although the author was not involved in the development of the game, critics note that Rowling will likely profit from Hogwarts Legacy and benefit from its popularity.

Asked about possible boycotts in August, Warner Bros.’ head of gaming, David Haddad, told Axios: “We’re going to stay very focused on the game that we built and the great job that the Avalanche studio has done.”

He added: “We want everybody that loves this world and loves these stories and loves these characters.”