Hogwarts Legacy flying off shelves despite Rowling boycott call

The new Harry Potter video game is flying off Australian shelves despite heated online debate surrounding the series’ allegedly ‘anti-transgender’ creator JK Rowling.

Hogwarts Legacy, a video game adaptation of the wizarding world created by JK Rowling, is on track to be the biggest-selling premium release of 2023. Picture: Nikki Short

The new Harry Potter video game which promises players an “immersive” experience is flying off Australian shelves despite heated online debate surrounding the series’ allegedly “anti-transgender” creator JK Rowling.

Before its release on Friday, the reception for open-world role-playing game Hogwarts Legacy was divided, with many fans keen to extend the Harry Potter world while others called for a boycott due to Rowling’s public statements countering the views of trans activists.

Some members and allies of the transgender community are refusing to buy the game in solidarity and to prevent Rowling from cashing in on the rewards of her intellectual property, although the game was developed without her involvement.

Concerns among the boycott camp include tweets from Rowling which her detractors claim are “anti-transgender”, but which supporters say are simply in defence of women and their biology.

The first canonical transgender character, named Sirona Ryan, is introduced in Hogwarts Legacy.

Hogwarts Legacy video game cover. Source: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

The controversy has not stopped the game from a wildly successful rollout.

Hogwarts Legacy smashed the video live streaming platform Twitch’s record for the most live viewers for a single-player game ever, with statistics recording 1.2m watching live at one point.

Despite the controversy, stock levels in gaming stores in Australia indicate Hogwarts Legacy is performing well.

EB Games and JB Hi-Fi stores in Sydney are low on stock for both the Xbox and Playstation 5 editions since the game’s release.

The standard edition retails for $109.95 while its deluxe counterpart is priced at $119.95 and is sold out at most retailers in the Sydney CBD. The most expensive version is a collector’s edition that has a hefty price tag of $499.95.

An EB games manager in Glebe said Hogwarts Legacy has been “extremely popular” but that she noticed certain demographics were not buying it.

“I’m definitely seeing less queer people and less young people coming in to buy it. It’s a lot of millennials aged 25 and up that are buying it in my experience, but not a lot of people 15 and under,” she told The Australian.

The manager said she was aware of the controversies and that Rowling’s comments would have “crossed lines” for some consumers.

“I think it’s a deciding factor because it’s really crossed lines for some people … It’s been a point of contention on the internet but not as much a point of contention in real life,” she said.

“There aren’t always as many people who are willing to be heard in real life as they are on the internet. I think it’s sent a message that people need to think about what they’re consuming and that has been affecting people’s decisions and choices.”

Rowling has defended her stance in the face of what she calls “misogynistic slurs”.

She has been called a ‘TERF” – a Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist – examples of which, she says, “range from the mother of a gay child who was afraid their child wanted to transition to escape homophobic bullying, to a hitherto totally unfeminist older lady who’s vowed never to visit Marks & Spencer again because they’re allowing any man who says they identify as a woman into the women’s changing rooms”.

Hogwarts Legacy will be available on old-gen in April while Nintendo Switch owners will have to wait until July 23.