Hogwarts Legacy is the greatest Harry Potter game launch ever | UK boxed chart

Hogwarts Legacy has had a very big start in the UK games trade, comfortably being the #1 game of the week (GfK data).

It’s the biggest launch for a Harry Potter game ever, with sales 64% higher than the previous best – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone from 2001. In fact, the biggest week for a Harry Potter game wasn’t one Launch week at All in all, it was the second week of Philosopher’s Stone (due to the hype surrounding the film). Even compared to this week, Hogwarts Legacy was still 2% larger.

This result is even more impressive when you consider that this only applies to physical sales. Hogwarts Legacy would have received a significant number of digital downloads (those dates will come later in the week) while Philosopher’s Stone had no digital sales in 2001. Therefore, the success will be even more pronounced once all the data is In.

Harry Potter is the 26th biggest video game franchise in the UK, just behind the Forza series but ahead of The Legend of Zelda.

Compared to last year’s big fantasy release, Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy sales are up 80% in its first week.

PS5 accounted for 82% of Hogwarts Legacy sales, with the remaining 18% coming from Xbox Series S and X. Digital sales are likely to narrow this gap between the two platforms, as Xbox’s digital share tends to outweigh physical (due in part to the popularity of the digital-only Xbox Series S).

Expect the game to continue floating on the charts, with PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch versions of the game due out in the coming months.

Sony’s God of War Ragnarok is in second place this week with a 10% increase in sales. The action-adventure PlayStation game is part of a very popular PS5 hardware bundle.

FIFA 23 slips from #1 to #3 after a small 3% drop in sales compared to the week, while Mario Kart 8: Deluxe still sits at #4 despite a 10% drop in sales.

There has been some price activity in Nintendo Switch games this week that has resulted in games climbing the charts. Animal Crossing: New Horizons jumps seven spots to #5 after a 40 percent jump in sales week-on-week. New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe jumps eight spots to #10, Mario Strikers: Battle League Football jumps on sales up 197 % up 25 spots, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury grows 68%, rising from #27 to #27 to .15, Mario Tennis Aces re-enters the charts at #17 (sales up 182%) and Luigi’s Mansion 3 ranked 20th (up 88% in sales).

Recent release Dead Space falls from No. 3 to No. 7 after a 52% drop in sales, while Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake falls from No. 10 to No. 34 in its second week after a 60% drop in sales.

Here are the GfK UK Boxed Top Ten for the week ending February 11, 2023:

Biggest Harry Potter Game Launches (GfK Data)

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