Hogwarts Legacy
analyzed 2026-09-27 · sample of 515 English reviews across the whole review history
Across 515 sampled reviews, the world draws the most consistent praise: 66 of 70 mentions are positive, with players calling it "truly spectacular and incredibly well designed" and noting it "feels lived in". Graphics (46 of 50 positive), atmosphere (24 of 26), and combat (51 of 62) follow a similar pattern, and exploration and lore are largely spoken of warmly. Story appears in 79 reviews, where 54 are positive against 15 negative. Opinion splits more sharply elsewhere. Quest design draws 18 positive and 14 negative mentions, and customization 11 against 9. Performance is the clearest fault line: of 35 mentions, 22 are negative and only 6 positive, with reports of stuttering and memory use. Bugs, stability, and updates also skew negative, and player choice is criticized in 14 of 18 mentions. Characters, writing, pacing, and balance lean negative as well, alongside grind as a recurring theme. Smaller groups still register: music, art style, and sound design are almost uniformly positive, while multiplayer is mentioned only as an absence. Mods come up as a remedy, and several reviewers hope for future DLC.
numbers checked against this report's stored data · quotes copied verbatim from reviews · plain text is the language model's own wording
Aspects
share of sample, axis to 20% · ± is the sampling uncertainty around each share
- positive
- mixed / neutral
- negative
-
story
54 positive · 15 negative · 5 mixed · 5 neutral
-
I finished the story and now i can do whatever i want.
-
Combat is engaging and the story develops in a very fun way (the parts I got to, at least).
-
Very disappointed because the story seems interesting but I can’t experience it properly.
-
-
world
66 positive · 1 negative · 3 mixed · 0 neutral
-
This game really wouldn't be the same if it were in England, granted some areas of the country could be made to look pretty great, the world we get to explore throughout this game is truly spectacular and incredibly well designed.
-
A lot of collectibles and the world is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ huge and feels lived in! It was kind of trippy to see!
-
It's immensely immersive and inviting, and you definitely feel like you're in Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.
-
-
combat
51 positive · 5 negative · 5 mixed · 1 neutral
-
The combat isn't the best but it's def good! It's got both a dodge and parry mechanic, and the difficulty you choose will determine how much time you have to react to incoming attacks.
-
the puzzles are fun, the fights are fun, the graphics a very good.
-
Edit: More Accio-Duells would be Great...those where fun, but way to less possibilities to play them
-
-
graphics
46 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
It was like a hella vastly improved version of modded Skyrim for me, I couldn't believe how open everything was and how good it all looked!
-
the puzzles are fun, the fights are fun, the graphics a very good.
-
The graphics are gorgeous, the fights are enjoyable (though a bit too easy for my taste), the different riddles are good.
-
-
exploration
35 positive · 2 negative · 2 mixed · 1 neutral
-
The open-world exploration and puzzles still call to me after 10 hours, and many of the puzzle types are novel variations on a theme, so I'm not bored by having to do them.
-
The world does really feel immersive and you will enjoy flying around the castle and finding all the secrets it hides within.
-
If you love the wizarding world you will love this game, great exploration, good game mechanics.
-
-
quest design
18 positive · 14 negative · 5 mixed · 1 neutral
-
30 hours in at the time of writing and i am doing almost all the sidequests, because they are fun.
-
+ there are so many unique quests to enjoy with each a little story.
-
Side quests offer compelling rewards, mostly without feeling like arbitrary fetch quests.
-
-
gameplay
25 positive · 8 negative · 2 mixed · 0 neutral
-
Gameplay is fantastic. I hope if they make another one, I wish they would improve on some stuff.
-
solid gameplay, solid graphics
-
-Gameplay is fine
-
-
performance
6 positive · 22 negative · 4 mixed · 3 neutral
-
Have a pretty neat PC, but the game is stuttering and most likely taking up way too much memory even with medium settings (while I can have Ultra/highest on literally every other game without issues).
-
The stuttering in most of the highly interactive areas gets so bad that I am skipping around my monitor. I maybe have 5 minutes of no stutter during cutscenes and dialogue and then game play takes place and the stutter continues on.
-
- Very poorly optimized for the PC
-
-
content amount
22 positive · 11 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
A lot of collectibles and the world is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ huge and feels lived in!
-
Always makes me happy when new AAA games come out complete and fully realized.
-
It reminds me a little of Skyrim, so many things to do and occupy your time with..questing, gathering resources, rescuing animals, taking care of said animals, planting, decorating your room of requirement, decorating your vivarium.
-
-
price value
18 positive · 5 negative · 9 mixed · 1 neutral
-
Worth of every penny.
-
-Price is okay
-
Well worth the investment. If you loved Harry Potter - the books or movies or both - you will absolutely love this.
-
see more
-
atmosphere
24 positive · 2 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
It's immensely immersive and inviting, and you definitely feel like you're in Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.
-
Super immersive.
-
Pretty fun and immersive if you are a fan of Harry Potter you will enjoy it.
-
-
customization
11 positive · 9 negative · 0 mixed · 1 neutral
-
The cosmetic stuff is ridiculous and very cool at the same time. You can at almost any time make yourself look how you want to, which is a very nice touch, imo.
-
The game also managed to be the most inclusive game I've ever seen, done in a way that feels natural.
-
Clothes, loved it. Decorating room of requirements and the vivariums, loved it.
-
-
bugs
4 positive · 14 negative · 1 mixed · 1 neutral
-
A few minor bugs and oddities maybe but nothing serious.
-
- Buggy as hell
-
Maybe one, some of the things have tendency to re-appear but that doesn't rly matter.
-
-
characters
7 positive · 12 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
-
But its a shame they forgot to put Harry Potter and Hermione.
-
I do feel like there should have been less diverse characters, considering the where & the when the game is based.
-
- Forgettable characters
-
-
level design
12 positive · 8 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
the detail to the castle is amazing and the crafting and etc is fun im finding it enjoyable
-
+ great castle design - absolutley the best part of the game
-
Hogwarts castle, however, is a world in itself, with students, ghosts and portraits running amok and secret doorways around every corner. The level of details the Hogwarts represent is stunning.
-
-
player choice
3 positive · 14 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
-
Later in the game the character just blurts out to everyone that will listen that they can see and use ancient magic which completely negates the option of hiding this information from people in the first place.
-
The Game tends to simulate that you have any Choice that matters, but you dont have. Even if you want to you couldn´t be the Bad person or reject Quests.
-
Additionally our choices do not really matter all that much.
-
-
stability
2 positive · 14 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
This update corrupted my 57 hour playthrough, along with many other people and I am not wanting to go back through the grind of everything I did.
-
I can play for 5-30min before the entire game crashes.
-
I can play up to 5min max, then it crashes.
-
-
game length
7 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 3 neutral
-
-Acceptable Playtime for a Casula Playthrough without trying 100%
-
The story will keep you entertained for 32+ hours which in itself is a decent playtime. To me, it is easily worth a full price as it has already kept me entertained for a good amount of hours and I plan to grind some more completion percentage still.
-
+ I love how big it is and how many hours you can spend enjoying it
-
-
difficulty
4 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 5 neutral
-
It's got both a dodge and parry mechanic, and the difficulty you choose will determine how much time you have to react to incoming attacks.
-
Keep in mind, this is not a Dark Souls game so it is pretty easy even on Hard.
-
☑️Normal
-
-
progression
7 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 2 neutral
-
This game is a wonderful experience, very fun to play and has a fantastic progression model, you get things slow, so you have time to play/learn how to use them.
-
Its fulfilling to reach talents, gear...etc before intended otherwise.
-
Very enjoyable game, set in a world that really seems to balance character progression and story-line without feeling too much like grinding.
-
-
mods
8 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
Once I installed the mod Ascendio it got better, but it was still not perfectly smooth.
-
It has a few issues, like I dont like having to balance spell cooldowns (but thats just my personal preference), but it's nothing a few mods cant fix.
-
It's incredibly fun game, even more fun if you mod it.
-
-
developer conduct
2 positive · 8 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
I absolutely would have played through a 2nd time, maybe more, I don't know, but this left a really sour taste in my mouth and I tried again today 2/28/23, to see if the Devs addressed this, and nope. So, the lack of care there makes me quite disinterested.
-
Realistically, the Devs have the time and the money to fix the issue but don't, therefore DO NOT BUY.
-
Since i have not found anything from the devs regarding a fix, and these issues have seemingly persisted for quite a few months now, I cannot recommend getting the game as you might not be able to play it depending on your hardware.
-
-
writing
2 positive · 6 negative · 0 mixed · 2 neutral
-
You get around 60 hours of gametime if you want to collect everything (according to my estimates) and will enjoy a more than competent and varied (if not particularly well-written or deep) experience.
-
good gameplay, boring dialog sometimes
-
Apart from cringe and repeating dialogs the game was kinda meh.
-
-
lore
8 positive · 0 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
-
As a harry potter fan i like the mentions to the film series and the connections some characters have to to the story.
-
Rewarding if you care about the lore.
-
I'm also surprised with how many references to the original early 2000s Harry Potter games there were, made me feel surprisingly nostalgic.
-
-
replayability
7 positive · 1 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
-
Whilst on the topic of achievements, although I have no qualms with replaying the early levels, I really wish I didn't have to live through all of the Merlin Trials.
-
oh yeah this game is amazing 10/10 i would diff play it again and i was really fun
-
Not to mention that there are countless storylines that will make you want to go back and play under each Hogwarts House.
-
-
addictiveness
8 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
The game is a Masterpiece that you can become addicted to playing through from start to finish as a completionist or even just to enjoy the msq.
-
It has had me engaged and hooked from the first day I started playing it.
-
I'm addicted to it and it has truly brought me joy and all the nostalgia has come back to me full force reminding me of how much the series gave me life and made me the nerd that I have become today!
-
-
balance
0 positive · 8 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
The last boss, not the (SPOILERS) dragon, it lasted 20 seconds at best, what a let down.
-
- Awful game balancing. Decent build & Spell rotation with Potions make the game too easy
-
I also found that the economical system was a bit useless.
-
-
controls
2 positive · 5 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
-
The only downside I have experienced is less than stellar control when flying. I had to map the altitude control to my mouse to get around that flaw.
-
Broom controls on PC are abysmal, the worst. Completely ruined the game for me.
-
Great graphics for meme control scheme
-
-
pacing
0 positive · 7 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
-
- Gets very repetitive and boring very soon
-
- a lot of repeating in the end. Mainly the merlin trials, it probably wouldn't be as bad if there wasn't the same cutscene over and over.
-
Were I to offer some critique, it would be the repetitive nature of the mini-games.
-
-
updates
1 positive · 7 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
I'm giving this a thumbs down because there was some update that happened somewhere between February 16-18, I took a break for a few days to play some other games during that time.
-
The game worked amazing until the update 14 days ago. Today they tried to fix it and it still doesn't work.
-
I love the game but whatever update they made earlier this month has made it almost unplayable now.
-
-
dlc
5 positive · 1 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
-
World is huge, beautiful and full of Harry Potter charm, hope for some good DLC/Expacs in the future
-
It really draws you into the Hogwarts experience I am really hoping for content dlc in the future
-
There is also a few bugs here and there, but there is so much potential with this game and hopefully future expansion will bring that out.
-
-
music
7 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
Now onto one of the best aspects of this game, and no I am not referring to Professor Garlick, but of course the music beautifully composed by Chuck E. Myers, Peter Murray and J Scott Rakozy.
-
And yet it still pulls off the feel of a magical mysterious world with the music and the art style, and the wonders that you can find.
-
The soundtrack is amazing, the map is perfect - not so big, not so small, went for 100% - all achievements, all collectibles everything.
-
-
art style
6 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
And yet it still pulls off the feel of a magical mysterious world with the music and the art style, and the wonders that you can find.
-
Design is top tier.
-
There’s an almost painterly look and the gloomy weather really enhances the elaborate architecture and detailed models.
-
-
voice acting
3 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
-the Character seems to have just 4 to 5 Voicelines and repeating them every encounter
-
CONS: Very slow and tedious menu, dead looking cross-eyed NPC's, bollocks voice acting at times, and no Quidditch
-
I played with the male main character and the lackluster voice acting doesn't do much to elevate an already unnatural style of conversational writing.
-
-
animation
1 positive · 3 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
-
The facial expressions are simply wrong most of the time - the world is in great danger, your life is threatend and your avatar is basicly smiling and grining all the time.
-
Prof. Fig still has no animations and is ultra low poly.
-
NPC emotion animation value is almost non existent.
-
-
multiplayer
0 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
Great game, You truly feel like a student at hogwarts, Only loss is no multiplayer
-
The game has some parts in which can be better - I hope that they will took inspiration and add multiplayer mode into the second episode.
-
- there is so much multi-player potential (broom races, duelling, or even just stats). But none of it is used
-
-
platform access
4 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
The version without denuvo works flawlessly...
-
steam deck verified.
-
Also good on handheld units
-
-
sound design
4 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
-
The game looks great , sounds great.
-
I love the world, the look, the sound, and most of the game play.
-
+ Amazing sound effects and quality, both in game and voice-overs.
-
Emergent themes unvalidated
topics reviewers bring up that are not on the validated list; raw counts only, no error bars
- grind 5
Review timeline
monthly peak 119,035 reviews · all languages
monthly share rated positive · 50% reference · months with <5 reviews faded
the timeline as a table
| month | reviews | up | down | positive | note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2023 | 119,035 | 110,771 | 8,264 | 93% | |
| Mar 2023 | 20,835 | 18,614 | 2,221 | 89% | |
| Apr 2023 | 5,945 | 5,048 | 897 | 85% | |
| May 2023 | 3,810 | 3,226 | 584 | 85% | |
| Jun 2023 | 2,770 | 2,402 | 368 | 87% | |
| Jul 2023 | 3,733 | 3,229 | 504 | 86% | |
| Aug 2023 | 2,372 | 2,008 | 364 | 85% | |
| Sep 2023 | 3,047 | 2,635 | 412 | 86% | |
| Oct 2023 | 2,374 | 2,045 | 329 | 86% | |
| Nov 2023 | 12,641 | 12,093 | 548 | 96% | |
| Dec 2023 | 4,499 | 3,918 | 581 | 87% | |
| Jan 2024 | 4,680 | 4,179 | 501 | 89% | |
| Feb 2024 | 2,838 | 2,467 | 371 | 87% | |
| Mar 2024 | 2,675 | 2,290 | 385 | 86% | |
| Apr 2024 | 2,321 | 1,979 | 342 | 85% | |
| May 2024 | 1,613 | 1,389 | 224 | 86% | |
| Jun 2024 | 3,771 | 2,554 | 1,217 | 68% | |
| Jul 2024 | 4,355 | 3,132 | 1,223 | 72% | |
| Aug 2024 | 2,002 | 1,696 | 306 | 85% | |
| Sep 2024 | 4,741 | 4,117 | 624 | 87% | |
| Oct 2024 | 2,829 | 2,456 | 373 | 87% | |
| Nov 2024 | 4,176 | 3,699 | 477 | 89% | |
| Dec 2024 | 5,687 | 4,984 | 703 | 88% | |
| Jan 2025 | 4,794 | 4,173 | 621 | 87% | |
| Feb 2025 | 3,943 | 3,135 | 808 | 80% | |
| Mar 2025 | 3,877 | 3,337 | 540 | 86% | |
| Apr 2025 | 2,803 | 2,365 | 438 | 84% | |
| May 2025 | 2,316 | 1,968 | 348 | 85% | |
| Jun 2025 | 2,138 | 1,807 | 331 | 85% | |
| Jul 2025 | 3,032 | 2,608 | 424 | 86% | |
| Aug 2025 | 2,442 | 2,087 | 355 | 85% | |
| Sep 2025 | 2,991 | 2,565 | 426 | 86% | |
| Oct 2025 | 5,686 | 4,940 | 746 | 87% | |
| Nov 2025 | 6,062 | 5,533 | 529 | 91% | |
| Dec 2025 | 6,393 | 5,471 | 922 | 86% | |
| Jan 2026 | 3,886 | 3,357 | 529 | 86% | |
| Feb 2026 | 2,343 | 2,039 | 304 | 87% | |
| Mar 2026 | 2,365 | 2,027 | 338 | 86% | |
| Apr 2026 | 1,741 | 1,460 | 281 | 84% | |
| May 2026 | 1,396 | 1,178 | 218 | 84% | |
| Jun 2026 | 1,859 | 1,591 | 268 | 86% | |
| Jul 2026 | 1,675 | 1,445 | 230 | 86% | |
| Aug 2026 | 1,515 | 1,246 | 269 | 82% | |
| Sep 2026 | 1,992 | 1,659 | 333 | 83% |
How this report was made
- Population
- all Steam reviews of the game (every language, purchase type, and verdict), walked newest-first per window; only English-language reviews are analyzed
- Sample
- 515 English reviews, time-proportional draw over 44 windows (newest-first within each), taken from an all-language walk and kept English-only — where English is a minority the sample runs smaller than the draw, and every margin of error is computed at 515
- Aspect yield
- 277 of 515 analyzed reviews carry at least one aspect (53.8%); every share on this page divides by all 515
- Interval regime
- calm: standard margins of error for a share of a sample (Wilson interval), no widening needed
- Fetch paths
- 44 time windows fetched directly (windowed)
- Language mix
- 1,000 fetched: english 518 · brazilian 86 · german 70 · 21 more
- Steam-marked windows
- none flagged by Steam (Valve's off-topic flagging began March 2019)
- Marked share
- 0.0% of sample inside marked windows, under the 2% floor
- Narrative
- passed the grounding gate first try
- Evidence floor
- aspects and emergent themes appear only with 5+ supporting reviews; smaller counts sit at the classifier's false-positive floor
- Instrument readings
- measured once on the study corpus for this model and prompt: frozen calibration, not properties of this run
- · aspect tagging vs. human labels
- 0.801 [0.752–0.844] (F1 against a human-labeled test set; 1.0 is best)
- · quotes filed under the wrong aspect
- 11.6% [6.6–19.6] of quotes, measured by hand on a sample; lower is better — measured on the prior model (2026-08-05); re-measurement pending
- · independent model vs. production labels
- 0.791 [0.772–0.810] (F1 of the production labeler against an independent judge model) — measured on the prior model (2026-07-25); re-measurement pending
- Versions
- deepseek-flash · prompt classify-v1 · ontology v2
- Run
- serve-20260927T094341Z-2544b07a · code 798e06c
full methodology in the milestone write-ups