Interesting blurb, I didn't realize there was an effort to boycott this (which backfired):
The new Harry Potter video game, Hogwarts Legacy, isn’t even officially out yet and it’s already a top seller—despite J.K. Rowling detractors urging players to set down their controllers.
One of the most anticipated single-player RPGs of the year (Zelda’s obviously No. 1) will be available for general sale on Friday, but Potterheads willing to spend extra galleons got early access with the purchase of its Deluxe Edition starting on Tuesday. Even with that limited release, the game has already…
Broken the record for most concurrent views on Twitch for a single-player game (1.2 million).
Become the top earner on the video game marketplace Steam, the bestseller on the Epic Store, and taken both the No. 1 and No. 2 bestseller spots for its regular and deluxe versions on Amazon for the PlayStation 5.
If you only became a free elf yesterday…
The calls for a boycott stem from J.K. Rowling’s polarizing views on transgender rights. Ever since she got tweet-happy about them in 2019, some former fans have stopped buying Gryffindor scarves to keep royalty checks out of her bank account.
Despite the game developer Avalanche adding a transgender character to the game at the last minute, Hogwarts Legacy couldn’t avoid the controversy. Influential gamers have been telling fans not to play the game, while others have added custom tags to the game in Steam, including “genocide simulator.” At least one popular gaming chat forum banned discussion of it and some critics refused to review it.
Zoom out: This isn’t the first time a boycott backfired. Goya sales rose 22% two weeks after social media users called on consumers to stop buying it, and Nike sales went up 31% after a controversial campaign led to some people burning their shoes in protest. Oh, and did we mention that Louis CK sold out a show at Madison Square Garden last week?