Years of transphobic remarks by Harry Potter author JK Rowling have made "The Hogwarts Legacy" (opens in new tab) one of the most controversial video games in history (opens in new tab). However, that didn't stop it from being a huge hit on Steam and Twitch, with hundreds of thousands of gamers playing and watching the game even before it officially launched.

Hogwarts Legacy officially launches on February 10, but players who paid extra for the deluxe edition can start playing 72 hours earlier, on February 7. And the numbers are substantial: according to SteamDB (open in new tab) (via Steam API), more than 488,000 people are currently playing the game. It is not listed in the Steam Top 100 (open in new tab) because it has not yet been officially released, but if it were, it would have beaten PUBG to Dota 2's position, which currently holds the third place.

(Apparently the only reason SteamDB can track the number of concurrent users for early access releases is because members of the community have gifted copies of the game to the bot.)

Similar numbers can be found on Twitch (open in new tab): according to analyst platform Gamesight (open in new tab), "Hogwarts Legacy" is the largest single player game launch in Twitch history based on concurrent viewers and has easily surpassed "The Elden Ring" and trails "Valorant" and "The Lost Ark" in the overall lead.

This seems to be the opposite of sensationalist reports that streamers "could lose their jobs (open in new tab)" if they play "Hogwarts Legacy" on their channel.

Despite the backlash against Hogwarts Legacy, there was no question that it would be a hit. Pre-purchases alone made it one of the best-selling games on Steam, and it currently holds the top spot in the rankings (opens in new tab).

But the scale of this success is truly remarkable. Keep in mind, this number of players only includes those who purchased the $70/£60 deluxe edition and took advantage of Steam's early access period: sales of the regular version and deluxe edition owners who either didn't care or forgot about the early access period are excluded, and Epic Games Store releases and not to mention console versions.

Hogwarts Legacy will be fully unlocked (open in new tab) on February 10 at 10am PT/1pm ET/6pm GMT for the PC version; the PlayStation 5 version will be available at midnight in your local time zone (except in the North American Pacific time zone The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions will be released on April 4, and the Nintendo Switch version on July 25.