WB Games reports year-on-year decline ahead of Hogwarts Legacy's $850m success

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Hogwarts Legacy has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide in its first two weeks on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

The news was announced alongside Warner Bros Discovery's financial results for the nine months ended December 31, 2022, with the company adding that the fantasy action-RPG has also generated $850 million in sales since its launch on February 10.

GamesIndustry.biz previously reported that Hogwarts Legacy was the biggest UK retail launch for a Harry Potter game to date. The game is still in development for other formats.

Looking at the company's results, Warner Bros Discovery reported revenues of $11 billion for the first nine months of its fiscal year, of which Content – encompassing its TV licensing, home entertainment and video games businesses – accounted for $3.6 billion.

It's hard to parse the specific performance within the games segment, partly due to it being mixed in with Content, and partly due to the Q1-Q3 fiscal year results being skewed by Warner Media's merger with Discovery last year. But the company did give some insight into how well its video games business was performing.

In both its report and the accompanying earnings call, transcribed by Seeking Alpha, Warner Bros said games and home entertainment revenues were lower due to "COVID-induced demand in the prior year."

Nonetheless, president and CEO David Zaslav described games as "a core part of [Warner's] overall strategy," with chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels saying the company is releasing six titles in 2023.

The first was Hogwarts Legacy, with the Rocksteady-developed Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League due later this year. Zaslav also mentioned the previously unannounced Mortal Kombat 12 on the call.

There was no mention of Gotham Knights, which was the publisher's big Q4 release and launched to mix reviews.