Hogwarts Legacy was the biggest non-CoD or FIFA launch since Red Dead Redemption 2

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The Harry Potter RPG's first week was notably bigger than Elden Ring's

Hogwarts Legacy
(Image credit: WB Games)

Hogwarts Legacy has had one of the biggest single-player launches since 2018's Red Dead Redemption 2, beating out the likes of Elden Ring and only falling short of some of the biggest annual franchises.

Digital sales data across Europe confirms that Hogwarts Legacy's first-week sales were up 56% on Elden Ring's last spring. As pointed out by GamesIndustry's Christopher Dring, that's "the biggest game launch outside of FIFA & Call of Duty since Red Dead Redemption 2." Those franchises tend to be chart-toppers yearly, with few games ever able to challenge them for yearly top spots.

Extended to North America, that likely means that Hogwarts Legacy also fell short of Madden, but otherwise it's topped the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. It's worth noting that several of the biggest games of the last few years - The Last of Us Part 2, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, God of War Ragnarok, etc - were console exclusives, while Hogwarts Legacy is one of the comparatively few major cross-platform releases.

Evidence of Hogwarts Legacy's success has been most visible on PC, where it topped 879,000 concurrent players and nabbed all four top-seller spots on Steam. Warner Bros is yet to reveal sales figures on console, although those are likely to appear in the next couple of days as the game's first official sales week draws to a close.

It'll be interesting to see those sales, as well as the tail that Hogwarts Legacy has. Elden Ring certainly felt as though it picked up momentum over its first week, and while Legacy might not have that same ongoing support on current platforms, its last-gen versions aren't set to arrive until April, with a Switch version coming even later. Also interesting to note is that Hogwarts Legacy has been the subject of repeated protests and boycott attempts, suggesting that its ongoing sales could be hampered.

The release of Hogwarts Legacy has been the subject of criticism and debate due to J.K. Rowling's public stance on gender identity, which continues to challenge the inclusivity at the heart of the Harry Potter community. Here is our explainer on the Hogwarts Legacy controversy.

Ali Jones
Ali Jones
Managing Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.