Hogwarts Legacy is 2023 Best-Selling New Game - How Popular is it in China?

Warner Brother's title sold over 22 million copies, becoming the best-selling new game of the year worldwide!

Following the Warner Bros. Games announcement that Hogwarts Legacy sold more than 22 Million copies worldwide in 2023, I think it's interesting to “check” how popular Harry Potter is in China as well.

-While Hogwarts Legacy does not have a publishing license in the country, the game is widely and easily accessible both digitally and physically on e-commerce platforms and official online stores (Nintendo e-Shop, PSN, Xbox/Microsoft Store, Steam…). In Chinese, the game is called 霍格沃兹之遗.

-It’s difficult to gauge exactly how popular Harry Potter as an IP is in China (and I'm certainly not a certified tracker), but we do know that NetEase’s mobile game "Harry Potter: Magic Awakened" has been very popular in China for some years already (哈利波特：魔法觉醒 in Chinese).

Magic Awakened was initially developed and launched as a China-exclusive title. Published by NetEase.

-Also, one of Universal Beijing Resort’s most popular attractions is "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter", and arguably one of Beijing's hottest tourist spots.

-Anecdotally, over the years I've met many people in China who are fans of the books and movies. The books have been particularly influential as a tool to learn and study English among a wide spectrum of people. Chinese translated editions exist however, and they’re easily found online and book stores.

-Today (1/9/2024), Hogwarts Legacy trended for a while on popular Chinese social media platform Weibo (pictured), due to the sales benchmark announcement.

How Many Copies Sold in China?

Personally, I'm confident to say Harry Potter is a very popular IP in China.

How many copies of Hogwarts Legacy were sold in China? Hard to say exactly, but according to data from

Simon Carless

“just over 500,000 PlayStation units of Hogwarts Legacy were played in Hong Kong/China, and somewhere around 500-600,000 Steam units. (And, uh, about 25,000 Xbox units!).” - Follow Simon if you want to know more about gaming discoverability and tons of great insights.

All China mainland sales are unlicensed for the country. Either digital copies, or imported physical ones from other markets.

According to that data, and my how general perception, I would say that China accounts for at least 1.5 Million copies of the game sold.

Left: News regarding the sales numbers on Weibo. / Right: a screenshot taken from Taobao (China’s biggest e-commerce platform)

Important to notice that this is a story-driven single player game, with no multiplayer and/or competitive game modes.
In China, online games reign supreme (generally), but of course there's also demand for other experiences.