Hogwarts Legacyhas continued its impressive launch by topping the Japanese sales charts in its debut week, outperforming Nintendo’s latest hit by a huge margin. ThenewHarry Pottergame already broke a 22-year-old sales recordin the UK, in addition to becoming WB Games' biggest-ever Steam launch and seizing the title of the most-viewed single-player game in Twitch history.
Less than a week into its release after a brief early-access period,Hogwarts Legacyalready appears to be in the running for the most successful game of 2023. Making matters even more impressive is the fact that the action RPG has so far only reached half its target platforms. Avalanche Software previously announced plans to doa staggered release ofHogwarts Legacyand is currently still working on porting the game to last-generation consoles.
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In the meantime, the latestHarry Pottergame continues to sell incredibly well, with the latest piece of evidence attesting to that trend coming from Japan. Famitsu estimates thatHogwarts Legacysold 67,196 copies during its debut week in the Far Eastern country, outselling the second-placedPokemon Scarlet and Violetby nearly 40,000 units. Of course, the newPokemongames have been out for months and already sold nearly 5 million units in Japan, but that’s not to downplay the local success ofHogwarts Legacy, which outperformed the next five best-selling titles combined during the observed period.
Furthermore, this data is for physical retail only, and while digital purchases aren’t as huge in Japan as in the West—e.g., Nintendo games have been fairly evenly split across the two channels since 2020— it’s still plausible that the total sales numbers ofHogwarts Legacyin the country are notably higher. Not to mention that the game didn’t even have the benefit of a full calendar week, having topped the weekly sales charts in only three days, just asthe first rave reviews ofHogwarts Legacycame out.
After the newHarry PotterARPG andPokemon Scarlet and Violet, Japan’s best-selling physical games for the week ending February 12 wereSplatoon 3(13,343),Mario Kart 8 Deluxe(11,807), andMinecraft(7,566). The bottom half of the top 10 chart was also dominated by Nintendo games, led byFire Emblem Engage(7,267) andNintendo Switch Sports(7,127), with the only exception beingGran Turismo 7(5,065), which squeezed betweenMario Party Superstars(5,155) andSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate(5,025).
The notable success ofHogwarts Legacyreaffirms Japan’s love for the Wizarding World franchise, which was possibly among the reasons why the Far Eastern country was also among thefirst markets to receiveHarry Potter: Magic Awakened. The 2021 mobile game has yet to be released globally, with Warner Bros. previously saying the Western audiences can expect it sometime in 2023.
Hogwarts Legacyis available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. PS4 and Xbox One ports are releasing April 4, whereas the Nintendo Switch version is arriving June 28, 2025.
