Still, the disagreements over whether to engage with the newest entry in the wizarding world have sowed chaos on internet forums. “It’s a game that got very popular very fast, and most people aren’t into the controversy.”ĭays before its official release, Hogwarts Legacy became the single-player game with the highest number of concurrent viewers on the streaming site Twitch, according to the analytics site Streams Charts, beating titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring. “The controversy is very loud,” said Alex Casilio, a YouTube creator who has followed Hogwarts Legacy throughout its yearslong development, though he questioned whether the debate would have a measurable impact on sales. Some have pledged to boycott the game, while others have embraced it or defended their right to play it without claiming specific gender politics. In recent weeks, they have used social media to confront one another over issues of transgender rights.

Hogwarts Legacy brought another dedicated community into the fold: gamers, a group not associated with soft-spokenness online.

Some pledged to cease spending money on the franchise, which includes a theatrical production and the “Fantastic Beasts” movies. “At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe.”įans who considered Rowling’s views odious and anti-trans - a sentiment she denies - clashed with those who sympathized with them, while others argued that the artist could be separated from her art. “I want trans women to be safe,” she wrote.

Potter fans have been grappling with those comments for years, especially after Rowling published an extensive essay in 2020 in which she said a movement of transgender activists was “seeking to erode ‘woman’ as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators.”

Fantastic beasts by jk rowling