Hogwarts Legacy First Week Digital Sales in Europe Were 56% Bigger Than Elden Ring - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 16 February 2023 / 9,242 Views
The head of GamesIndustry Christopher Dring via Twitter has a revealed the first week of digital sales for Hogwarts Legacy in Europe were 56 percent higher than Elden Ring.
Hogwarts Legacy has had the biggest video game launch outside of FIFA and Call of Duty in Europe since the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2.
"The digital data is in," said Dring. "Hogwarts Legacy's opening week was 56% bigger across Europe than Elden Ring. It's the biggest game launch outside of FIFA & Call of Duty since Red Dead Redemption 2.
"It backs up the theory that gamers are gravitating towards the big brands at the moment."
Dring responding to a Twitter user added, "Elden Ring was a massive, massive, massive launch. Up there with Pokemon and the biggest games, like Fallout."
Hogwarts Legacy released for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on February 10. It will also launch for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on April 4, and for the Nintendo Switch on July 25.
The digital data is in. Hogwarts Legacy's opening week was 56% bigger across Europe than Elden Ring. It's the biggest game launch outside of FIFA & Call of Duty since Red Dead Redemption 2.
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) February 16, 2023
It backs up the theory that gamers are gravitating towards the big brands at the moment
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
I took this as "Now we have digital data we know HW Legacy is 56% bigger than Elden Ring." Meaning the 56% is including physical as well.
Daaaaaaaamn! And the game still has 3 systems left to release on.
Congrats but It should have been expected, while Elden Ring was impressive it is only the best of a niche genre that doesn't have much reach beyond video game. Hogwarts Legacy is from a franchise which consumer awareness is not even on the same scale.
A lot of people online are downplaying this, ignoring the fact Elden Ring was a phenomenon that outsold Marvel properties and pretty much every established IP not Fifa and COD.
I've been following Hogwarts youtube metrics since day one so I knew something massive was coming, but it is simply is not the norm for any licensed video games to touch what Elden Ring achieved. If we did a poll back in 2021 about how this game would sell in it's first week on next gen platforms alone, I doubt many would have said 10m+. In fact I remember people citing the recent film flopping (secrets of Dumbledore) as reasons why this game probably won't be that big.
And I wonder by extension how many now think Avatar will do similar numbers
There have been a lot of juggernaut IPs outside out of gaming that when made games of totally flopped in sales, so just by being a Harry Potter game (doesn't even have HP) is hardly a metric to detract sales from
there's also been a ton of shovelware games that only tried to sell based on there franchise strength. This one obviously ain't a shovelware title but no doubt the strong sales is tied to it being from the HP universe. If this game had to truly stand on it's own it'll would only have sold a fractions compare to what it has.
I disagree based on the plethora of games based on other IPs that didn't translate to good sales, most of the sales in here are because the game is good, sure we can say popularity of the IP helped, but that isn't the main factor. Similar dismissive tactics were tried for Spider-Man
I'm not dismissive of this game in any way of course it needs be good to reach those sales. But you can have many games has impressive that will only sells a fraction of this because they are not backed back such popularity that spread consumer awareness almost on it's own.
Having a plethora of game based on popular Ip that didn't reach those sales figures does not really mean anything if those games were bad to ok-ish.
The franchise strength only act as a magnifying glass on consumer awareness and sales and in the case of HP no doubt it's a pretty strong one.
Soulslike RPG, a genre that contains a single game =p
I think you meant open world Soulslike RPG for it to be restricted to 1 title.
Soulslike RPG have more like 20-40 games depending on how strict you want to be on the definition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Soulslike_video_games
With a few hundreds of thousands to a few millions copies sold to mostly the same fans with few notable exceptions. That's kind of the exact definition of a niche.
Damn. That’s incredible. Congrats to the developers. They put a ton of love into the game.
I mean harry potter is one of the biggest names of all time
If only Hogwarts released the last gen consoles version allll at the same time they would've beaten elden ring easy
It beat Elden Ring easily regardless.
Great game. Well deserved.
it would of smashed records if released on last gen at the same time
Tbf, I feel like Elden Ring was a game that gradually increased its sales through word of mouth as the souls genre wasn't really mainstream before Elden Ring. I think BotW is similar to this as well, just like the souls genre, Zelda was also a pretty niche franchise in terms of sales before BotW. We can see this as Mario Odyssey had a better launch, but BotW eventually passing it.
Both ER and Z:BotW started very strong. ER was outpacing Horizon in sales and reception from release and Zelda was outselling Switch on the first month or two.
Why the heck did I get a downvote for simply asking how strong ER's sales started? What could possibly be wrong with simply asking that question, without any stank?! Sheesh.
Anyway, thank you for the answer. :)
I have no idea why anyone would give you a thumbs down on this. I think it is better to ask and confirm an info than spout wrong stuff. Perhaps someone supposed you had ill intent on your question (I don't think you had any).
Yeah, you and I have become "frenemies" on here as of late. We often disagree, but we at least seem to respect each other. :)
Of course I respect you, you are respectful and make your points based on data and when not you are clear it is just your preference. So we can discuss with merit. You are more for Xbox, while still liking some Sony games, I unfortunately haven't really see anything that entice me to have it (I plan on getting S for my son to have fun on gamepass, wife have been against kkkkkk, unfortunately the Xcloud on PC here have been not very good =[ ).
Heh, there's no "of course" with regard to respect in internet comments. :P
Thank you for taking the time to say so though. And it's mutual, I have come to respect where you make your decisions from too. :)
Xcloud works amazing for me, but I live just across the border from Microsoft's corporate headquarters (it's about 200km away, less as the crow flies), so I'm probably decently close to an Xblade server farm. And that's not going to be most people's situation.
I'm envy, my son is 8 years old, so his passion is installing games testing for 10min and jumping to the next if allowed. XCloud would be great on him kkkkk
Yeah, he sounds like a perfect candidate for streaming!
Do not us terms if you do not know the meaning. Zelda pre botw was not niche. It was one of the most recognizable game franchise ever. At it's worse, 1 game sold under a million and 2 sold under 2. If a series can consistently get over 2 to 3 mil for portable games and over 3 to 8 mil excluding ports on consoles, then it is not "niche".
Bruh that's why I said "pretty" niche in terms of "sales". I know the IP was very popular, but the sales weren't crazy by no means. When I think of games like Zelda or Souls games I think of a big dedicated fanbase, but not so much played outside of that group. Zelda was not a title anyone could casually pickup because it felt difficult, scary, dark, etc.
Since you asked for it
Niche - a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service.
For example, Soulslike is a genre for people that enjoys difficult gameplay. It is "specialized" for people that likes challenging games. Which is not a lot compared to the "whole market". Compare that to something like Minecraft, Amongus, f2p Battle royales, a game that anybody could start with. After BotW and Elden Ring, you notice more people grabbed it and introduced the franchise to people outside of the "group".
So comparing the first week sale of Elden Ring (Unknown IP) to Hogwarts Legacy (One of the biggest media franchise) is a bad comparison, could be misleading, holds no particular meaning. It's not that deep, but because you couldn't understand what my original comment proposed.
It is not simply just niche and mainstream. Zelda is an action adventure game. Anyone, can infact pick it up, which is why it consistently sells millions. I'm not even saying that it's mainstream. Its is just that in general, open world games are even more popular. But not everything is going to sell like Minecraft. Since minecraft has sold millions, would that make for example smash niche since it doesn't sell anywhere near as much. If every Gta after V always sold around 100 million, you would not call it niche since the same people within that group are always buying it. Something like danganronpa or ace attorney is niche, where a its specific genre that might be a turnoff for most, which leads it to sell relatively low. But whatever idrc think what you want.
