RPG fans are debating how to measure the enduring success of a game, as Hogwarts Legacy's 'completion' rate and player count have stalled six weeks after release.
On Twitter, one user highlighted Hogwarts Legacy's drop in players since its launch in early February, poking fun at a significant drop-off from the game's peak at 880,000 concurrent users to just 75,000 players late last week.
There are some significant caveats to that drop; many games see their audiences drop over time, and it's still relatively rare to see them break their original peaks outside of that launch window; a player count of 75,000 would also still make Hogwarts Legacy one of the biggest games on Steam, and indeed at time of writing, well outside of peak times, it remains in the top 25. Most notably for many players, its status as an entirely single-player experience means that many players would be likely to finish up the game and see minimal need to return.
While that's likely to be true, user AdequateEmily said that the idea that people would only play a single-player game through once is underwritten by the fact "that there's been a huge drop off in achievements where less than 30% of players have even beaten the final boss." Steam does note that only 24.9% of players have earned the 'Hero of Hogwarts' achievement for completing the main story, but that's not really the whole story.
People are like “uhhh it’s a single player game, people only play it once” in the replies and ignoring that there’s a huge drop off in achievements where less than 30% of players have even beaten the final boss. https://t.co/Zm3DgBRbAkMarch 19, 2023
Plenty of replies point out that games like Skyrim or The Witcher 3 - two beloved RPGs - boast similar stats. Only 23.7% have earned 'Passed the Trial' for The Witcher 3, and 31.5% earned Skyrim's 'Dragonslayer' achievement (dropping to just 11.5% for the Special Edition). On their comparative achievements, Red Dead Redemption 2 hits 22%, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order boasts 30%, and Mass Effect claimed 33% on its recent Legendary Edition release. Elden Ring has three ending achievements, but the most-achieved of those sits at 26.6%.
Further back and forths suggest that some of these games are significantly harder or longer than Hogwarts Legacy, or boast dramatically more replayability or side-content, allowing players to come back to the games in question multiple times. Others claim that Hogwarts Legacy was targeting a more casual audience, one long-known to not complete games en-masse.
There's little in the way of resolution to the argument, but that's not much of a surprise given the spate of community protests that have surrounded Hogwarts Legacy since the run-up to its release. Regardless of the extent to which its players have stuck around, however, it's been a huge financial success, and its sales are likely to get a significant bump when its last-gen version arrives in May.
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.
