Following its widely controversial release, Hogwarts Legacy’s concurrent players dropped significantly just a month later. However, it’s not surprising, considering that’s just the nature of games. Surprisingly, however, only 26% of players have beaten the game’s main story at the time of this writing. But what does this mean? And how long does it take to beat the game on average?
If you look at Hogwarts Legacy’s global gameplay stats on its official Steam page, you’ll find that only 26% of players have obtained the achievement, The Hero of Hogwarts.
Note that this achievement can only be unlocked upon beating the game’s main story, which involves beating Ranrok, the game’s final boss.
Meanwhile, if you look at the PlayStation trophy list, you’ll notice that 41% of players were able to unlock that achievement. While there’s a significant difference between PC and PS5, it’s undeniable that only less than half of the players couldn’t finish the game.
That said, it’s not really that worrying considering other well-known titles like The Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and even Elden Ring boast the same stats as Hogwarts Legacy. However, you can argue that those games are significantly more challenging or have way more replayability.
Currently, Hogwarts Legacy is still maintaining an average of 40,000 concurrent players daily. It’s a massive difference from its all-time peak, which reached over 800,000 players. Of course, as with any game, it’s impossible to maintain that number, especially for a single-player experience.
So, while the numbers have dwindled a lot, there’s nothing to worry about.
Why Only 26% of Players Were Able to Complete the Game
Image Source: Item Level
There are a few potential reasons for this, but remember that these are all speculations.
For starters, the game is massive, with lots of side content to complete and other activities that players can immerse in. From building your character, getting gear, and obtaining different creatures, to solving puzzles, this game offers a lot of content.
Even though the game features fast travel, it still takes a lot of time to finish all the activities.
This means that players who engage in those activities will completely forego the main story and go and explore the rest of the game’s massive world.
Another potential reason is that most people who purchased and played the game lead busy lives. This leaves them with little to no time to continue playing the game as they have responsibilities outside the game to take care of.
And since it looks like the game attracted fans of the Harry Potter books and movies, who are mostly in their 30s and 40s now, spending countless hours trying to finish the entire game seems unlikely.
Then there’s the fact that just a few weeks after its release, several highly anticipated games such as Octopath Traveler 2, Atomic Heart, and Sons of the Forest were released as well. Though they’re not as big as Hogwarts Legacy, there’s no denying the impact they have on the game’s dwindling player base.
How Long is the Game on Average?
Source: IGN
With a game as massive as Hogwarts Legacy, you might wonder how long it takes to beat the game that only a few people could finish it?
According to game developer Avalanche Software, the game will take roughly 40 hours to complete if you just focus on the game’s main story. However, if you plan to explore the world and do side quests, it will take you upwards of 100 hours to achieve 100% completion.
This sounds like an average length for games of this size. However, you can make it even shorter if you just play on the easiest difficulty, allowing you to cut down around 5 hours on average.
Regardless of the clear reason for its low player completion count, it’s really not that much of a surprise considering how controversial the game was upon launch. And it’s just common for games, in general, to drop their player count by a significant number just a few months after release.
Even after all that, we can’t deny the success of the game. It managed to beat Elden Ring as far as sales go, surpassing its lifetime sales in just under five weeks! Who knows how many million copies it might have sold a year after its release?
Besides, the game will receive its last-gen version come May this year, so maybe it will experience a massive bump in player completion percentage when that happens.
