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John Oliver vs. JK Rowling – who’s dying on a hill?
Just for a fun comparison. I pulled this together with some help from ChatGPT but feel free to check the facts. I did and they're all accurate.
Since Rowling made her initial tweet at the end of 2019:
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the smash-hit play which won over 15 major awards including 6 Tony Awards, continues to show across the world and is Broadway's most successful non-musical play of all time. It has generated over $330 mil and sold over 10 million tickets worldwide. (https://www.thewrap.com/broadway-top-grossing-non-musical-plays-war-horse-harry-potter-kill-mockingbird/)
Hogwarts Legacy, a video game released on February 10, 2023, achieved remarkable success by selling over 12 million copies and generating $850 million in revenue within its first two weeks. By the end of 2023, sales surpassed 22 million copies, solidifying its position as the year's best-selling game worldwide. The game also set records as Warner Bros.' most-played title, with 280 million hours played shortly after release, and became the biggest single-player game on Twitch, reaching 1.28 million peak concurrent viewers during its launch.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter continues to drive massive attendance and expansion at Universal theme parks. Its overwhelming popularity led to additional lands in Universal Studios Florida, Hollywood, and Japan. Attendance soared—by over 30% in Orlando and 60% in Hollywood—after each new opening. The success continues to drive Universal’s future as the new Harry Potter-themed expansion is set to open this May.
In April 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery announced plans for a new live-action Harry Potter television series, aiming to provide a faithful adaptation of J.K. Rowling's seven-book saga, with each season covering one book and the series projected to span a decade. Rowling will serve as an executive producer and has a with a planned debut on HBO and Max in 2026. The agreement's duration is expected to cover the entire production span of the series, aligning with the projected ten-year timeline. Additionally, in December 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery and Comcast's Sky reached a multi-year distribution deal, resolving previous disputes and facilitating the European launch of the Max streaming service, which will include the Harry Potter series.
Meanwhile, since 2019, the viewership ratings for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver has declined by more than half. In 2019, the show attracted between 650,000 to 1.63 million viewers per episode. By 2025, the viewership had decreased, with approximately 317,000 viewers on March 2nd 2025.
https://www.ratingraph.com/tv-shows/last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver-ratings-51299/#ratings
So I asks ya, who’s dying on a hill right now?
Edit: typos