Many players have dreams of entering Hogwarts and becoming a wizard despite calls for a boycott. Hogwarts Legacy managed to set a new record for the most concurrent players thanks to its early access launch for deluxe edition holders.
SteamDB reported that Hogwarts Legacy broke Dota 2‘s record during the first 24 hours. Its current all-time peak sits on over 489,000 users and currently has over 448,000 users playing the game. Meanwhile, Dota 2 dropped to third place, with only 319,024 concurrent players, as of writing. This number is expected to grow once the game officially launches at the end of the week.
The top holder for the most played game is currently Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, with over 642,000 concurrent users presently playing the game, and has received an all-time peak of over 1.3 million users. Both Dota 2 and Counter-Strike are free-to-play games developed by Valve, the same company that owns Steam. Other non-Steam games that made it to the charts are Apex Legends, Lost Ark, Rust, Dark and Darker Demo, PUBG: Battlegrounds, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.
Hogwarts Legacy has currently been facing backlash since its announcement due to its ties to J.K. Rowling. Despite Portkey Games and Warner Bros. reassuring fans that Rowling wasn’t involved in the game’s development, it’s still a Harry Potter game, meaning Rowling will receive some sort of financial gain.
Deluxe Edition holders can access the game days before the official launch and as of writing, over 500k people are watching live gameplay sessions on Twitch.
Hogwarts Legacy comes out on PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox S/X on Feb. 10, 2023.