Hogwarts Legacy becomes biggest single-player game ever on Twitch

First day of early access sets a new record

Hogwarts Legacy is set to be a serious contender for the most successful video game of the entire year in every aspect: critics are full of praise, pre-orders are topping the charts, and now the open-world RPG developed by Avalanche Software has also become a viewer magnet on Twitch.

Over 1.3 million viewers tuned into the Hogwarts Legacy category on the streaming platform on the first day of early access on February 7, 2023 (thanks, VGC). There are probably several reasons for this amount of interest: Players can get exclusive cosmetics via Twitch Drops by watching someone play the title a set amount of time – we have a Hogwarts Legacy Twitch Drops guide to explain the process to you.

There are also the Hogwarts Legacy controversies to consider, which have their origin with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s views on transgender people. Our linked explainer has the full details on this topic for you. Because of the views expressed by the setting’s creator, some people have called for a boycott of the game, even though Rowling had no direct input in development (though, crucially, she’ll still earn money from it).

The heated debate around the title and whether playing or broadcasting it is morally defensible has led to some streamers being attacked by their audience for featuring Hogwarts Legacy on their channels.

Avalanche Software has included a transgender character in the game as a surprise for players to discover, saying that this addition felt “very important” to the team.

Great reviews, free items, a popular franchise and genre, and spicy controversies are basically guaranteed to draw viewers, so it should be no surprise that Hogwarts Legacy is doing well on Twitch, becoming the biggest single-player game in the platform’s history. Previously, this title had been held by Cyberpunk 2077, which reached 1.1 million viewers in December 2020.

Multiplayer games like Fortnite, Valorant, and League of Legends can still boast higher peaks in viewership, but that is hardly surprising given their large player bases.

For more on the game, check out our Hogwarts Legacy review and Hogwarts Legacy walkthrough, which contains guides to everything you need to know about the open-world RPG.