“Hogwarts Legacy” broke records on Twitch, a game giant, after it became the most streamed single player game ever on the platform.
That was despite an aggressive cancelation campaign from liberal activists who called for boycotts of the game because of its ties to J.K. Rowling. The “Harry Potter” creator has been called “transphobic” after she argued that “erasing the concept of sex” also erases “the lived reality of women globally” in 2020.
Activists made multiple attempts to cancel the game ahead of its launch Friday, even designing a website to track and highlight streamers who played “Hogwarts Legacy.”
But even that couldn’t stop the game, which has received high praise from IGN and other game reviewers, from soaring to the top spot on Twitch.
Activists made multiple attempts to smear the game ahead of its launch Friday, even designing a website to track and shame streamers who played “Hogwarts Legacy.” (Screenshot / IGN)
“Hogwarts Legacy” celebrated the news Thursday, sharing that “Hogwarts Legacy” became “the #1 single player game ever” on Twitch “with 1.28M peak concurrent viewers at launch.”
The post has received over 99,000 likes on Twitter, with many users saying that they were excited to play the game.
“Haven’t had this much fun on a game in ages!” one user wrote. “Bravo!”
A number of gamers, journalists and influencers also celebrated the game’s success after the attempts to cancel the game failed.
“So now that the boycott of Hogwarts Legacy failed,” one popular Twitch streamer wrote, “[Reddit] is now just spamming spoilers for the game.
“It was never about trans rights or furthering a cause for good,” the streamer added. “They just want to ruin this thing for you.”
Some Reddit users shared screenshots of game spoilers in the days leading up to launch in an attempt to hurt its popularity online.
The media also did their part to try and label the game as racist and transphobic, according to El American editor-at-large Ben Kew.
“The mainstream media continue to amplify false narratives about the new Harry Potter Hogwarts Legacy video game,” Kew wrote.
Kew shared an article from Fortune magazine that was headlined, “Harry Potter game branded a ‘genocide simulator.'”
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One video that went viral on TikTok, picking up over two million views, poked fun at the controversy.
“For the most part, the people getting Hogwarts Legacy, it doesn’t mean anything to them except [that] they like Harry Potter.”
He continued: “Now I’m hearing people are bullying innocent streamers just because they’re playing this game?”
“You’ve become exactly what you hate: a monster.”
