Hogwarts Legacy closed 2023 with 22 million copies sold, more Harry Potter on the way
Publisher Warner Bros. Games revealed that Hogwarts Legacy sold 22 million copies in 2023 with two million games being purchased during the holiday season alone. It’s a very impressive result for the open-world RPG set in the 1800s Wizarding World that was released in February 2023.
According to a Variety interview with CEO David Haddad, more Wizarding World content is on the way – and not just the already announced Quidditch game. The WB Games boss is quoted as saying that “a series of other things” is currently in development that “will let the fans be part of this world and stories and characters in deeper and deeper ways.”
Hogwarts Legacy made a killing in 2023.
Avalanche Software
Hogwarts Legacy’s success should also have been a reminder that well-executed single-player games can be massive successes and live service isn’t the end-all-be-all. However, the bosses at Warner Bros. Discovery (and, presumably, the shareholders) have a different opinion. During the company’s latest earnings call, CEO David Zaslav called for more live service games to be put out by the games division to maximize player engagement and earnings. He also ordered a focus on Warner Bros. IP.
Haddad stated towards Variety that WB Games had gotten the message: “A very consistent message coming from the executive layer of Warner Bros. Discovery is the importance of franchises. There’s a unique and important role games have in keeping our franchises relevant, resonant and exciting because there’s plenty of fans and plenty of people consuming content where games are their starting point, it’s their preferred form of content.”
“When you ask what our goals are, it’s really that macro goal of making sure that we get as much engagement with the fans as possible using content and releases and updates and live services,” he continued, falling in line.
WB Games up to this point has had a bit of an on-off-relationship with live service games. It’s primarily known for great single-player experiences like the Batman Arkham trilogy and Hogwarts Legacy, but the upcoming Suicide Squad is geared towards the live service direction and looks to be dead on arrival after several delays and controversies. Its upcoming Wonder Woman title will – contrasting the new policy – not be a live service game. And then there is the curious case of MultiVersus, the free-to-play platform fighter that was tested with much success in 2022 and then suddenly taken offline again with fans grumbling about how the live service aspect was handled. It’s not exactly easy terrain to traverse.
