Hogwarts Legacy is based on the Wizarding World universe created by J.K. Rowling. You can read more about Rowling’s history of transphobic remarks as well as find resources to support LGBTQ organizations here.
2023 is only a few months old, but Hogwarts Legacy is already shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest hits. Fans love the game, and it sold faster than chocolate frogs at a BOGO candy sale despite the many controversies surrounding it. While a new set of Hogwarts Legacy stats suggest that not that many people actually stuck around to finish the game, the full context of those statistics tells a slightly different story.
Recently, several outlets reported that only 25% of Hogwarts Legacy players have earned the “Hero of Hogwarts” achievement on Steam (which is reserved for gamers who finished the campaign). That percentage has jumped up to 25.3% since then, which isn’t much of a difference. Either way, given the attention Hogwarts Legacy received (combined with its massive player population and favorable reviews), one might assume that more gamers would have completed the title. However, that conclusion is based on the assumption that many gamers actually finish video games these days.
That’s especially true of open-world games. For instance, only 26.6% of Steam gamers have earned the “finished the main storyline” achievement for our (and many others) 2022 Game of the Year, Elden Ring. But what about bigger, older titles that people have had even more time to finish? Remarkably, some of those games fare even worse. For instance, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Red Dead Redemption 2 have only been beaten by 23.7% and 22.6% of Steam users, respectively (based on currently available numbers).
What about non-open-world titles, though, such as Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade? According to Steam, only 27.2% of gamers have completed that game, though that title is still fairly long despite not being open-world. Yet, even when we measure shorter, more linear titles, the percentage of gamers who acquired end-game achievements is still rather low. The Dead Space remake, for instance, is fairly linear and pretty short (even when you take its new exploration systems into account), but only 40.6% of gamers have completed its final chapter. Meanwhile, only 36.9% of gamers finished the epilogue of the level-based Hitman 3, and only 40.8% of players earned the Steam achievement for finishing the incredibly short and extremely linear Stray.
Of course, even when you take all this context into consideration, we are still overlooking the all-important fact that these numbers only account for Steam players. After all, Hogwarts Legacy is also available on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5. According to sites that track console achievement completion ratings, 34% and 38.95% of players earned “Hero of Hogwarts” on Xbox and PS5, respectively. These numbers are understandably higher than the PC percentage since gaming consoles are significantly cheaper (and generally more accessible) than gaming PCs. You also have to consider that Hogwarts Legacy was released early in February and can take at least 30 hours to beat. There is obviously plenty of room in these statistics for those who haven’t yet beaten the game but intend to do so.
Ultimately, these completion stats may appear low but are actually pretty high when you take all factors into account. In any case, they certainly help show that actually beating a modern game (especially a larger game) isn’t quite as common as you might think.