6 Best Harry Potter Video Games Of All Time

Published Oct 31, 2026, 10:01 AM EDT

Jared is a writer, editor, and Communications Studies graduate who loves popular nerd culture (almost anything to do with Marvel, DC, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings) and the interactive storytelling medium. Jared's first console was the PS1, wherein he fell for Spider-Man, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot.

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What someone’s favorite Harry Potter video game is will probably have a lot to do with what they want out of a Harry Potter game specifically. If you’re aching to compete in Harry Potter’s epic Triwizard Tournament, for example, you’ll only get that immersive, interactive experience playing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Meanwhile, if you want to indulge in Wizarding World minigames like Exploding Snap, Gobstones, and wizard chess, you might be particularly charmed playing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Harry Potter is an odd franchise in terms of its lengthy selection of video games being largely composed of licensed tie-in adaptations based on the movies they share a title with. Still, whether you adore the nostalgia of these movies or simply the atmosphere of a Wizarding World that expertly marries childlike whimsy and sinister melancholy, there are half a dozen great Harry Potter games that you could confidently argue are better than the rest.

6 LEGO Harry Potter Collection

LEGO Harry Potter Collection, like any other licensed LEGO video game tie-in, isn’t an adaptation that’s concerned with being entirely faithful to its source material, though it succeeds at getting the gist of all eight movies. What’s maybe most notable is that it substitutes Harry Potter’s whimsy for LEGO games’ signature humor.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 deserve their flowers, however wilted they may be. That said, this LEGO Harry Potter compilation beats any of them on any day of the week.

LEGO Harry Potter Collection just got ported to Nintendo Switch 2, right in time for HBO’s Harry Potter TV series, which premieres this Christmas.

5 Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup

Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup scratches an itch that no other Harry Potter game can reach. Sure, some Harry Potter games have ‘Quidditch,’ but it’s commonly reduced to on-rails flying as players soar on broomsticks through glowing rings. In Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup, Quidditch is far more elaborate and satisfying.

Fans’ disappointment regarding Hogwarts Legacy not featuring an in-game Quidditch minigame was incredibly loud, surprisingly. Ironically, there didn’t seem to be any hype garnered for the multiplayer game dedicated to Quidditch that was released a couple of years ago, Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, despite it fulfilling that niche.

4 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is a fantastic first Harry Potter game, but it’s undeniably best known for the version on PlayStation 1. This is the game whose legacy is now how hilarious Hagrid the groundskeeper looks, spawning the legendary ‘PS1 Hagrid’ meme.

PS1 Harry Potter has a special place in a lot of fans’ hearts, likely because it’s one of the first video games they might’ve played, let alone their first Harry Potter game. It’s particularly exciting to visit Diagon Alley, though below Gringotts is a nightmarish mine cart ride rivaled only by how anxiety-inducing Madam Hooch’s flying lessons are.

It’s understandably elementary in terms of its mechanics and is therefore not technically a better game than its two subsequent installments. Nonetheless, we wouldn’t have the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban games if it wasn’t for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’s bones being such an outstanding foundation.

3 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the first Harry Potter game that lets you play as Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and that goes a long way in demonstrating that they’re paramount characters, too. It’s also debatable that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has the best art direction and character models of any Harry Potter game, aside from Hogwarts Legacy or any of the stylized Game Boy Color/Advance versions of Harry Potter games, maybe.

Indeed, an indelible reason why the first three Harry Potter games are so charming is that they were allowed to express themselves much more cartoonishly and artistically than Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2. Therefore, even if they’re low-poly, they’re far more timeless than their photorealistic successors, whose graphics and visuals are abysmally outdated by today’s standards.

Plus, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on Game Boy Advance is a terrific JRPG-style game.

2 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is bolstered primarily by the novel and movie having excellent settings, such as Diagon Alley or the Chamber of Secrets, and creatures, such as Aragog or the basilisk, that could be adapted into regions and enemies in-game. It also makes collecting Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans wonderfully worthwhile, as players can then purchase “wizard wheezes and magical merchandise” from Fred and George’s shop in a clandestine Gryffindor Reading Room bathroom.

Hell, you even get a Whomping Willow boss fight (before LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1–4, anyway). If it was ever remade, or if the HBO show’s second season gets adapted as a video game, it’d be horrifying to see what a stealth-oriented boss fight against the basilisk would look like in the Chamber of Secrets. As it stands, this final boss fight in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is fairly lackluster (to be fair, Harry is 12 years old).

You can make an argument as to why any of the first three Harry Potter games might be the best, but Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is many fans’ favorite Harry Potter game. Likewise, it’s these first three games that LEGO Harry Potter can’t hope to hold a candle to.

1 Hogwarts Legacy

Hogwarts Legacy may not be a Harry Potter game, per se, but it is the quintessential Wizarding World game. One of the only reasons you might prefer a Harry Potter game to Hogwarts Legacy is if you’re particularly fond of the Harry Potter movies’ nostalgia, or if one or more Harry Potter games are baked into the nostalgia of your childhood, in general.

Hogwarts Legacy made the brilliant decision to distance itself from the exploits of Harry Potter by taking place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the 1800s, allowing it to tell an original story. Moreover, Hogwarts Legacy is an open-world action-RPG with a fully explorable Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and Scottish Highlands that’ll have you casting Revelio to reveal secret Field Guide pages every five seconds.

Is it a little arduous to go and upgrade Alohomora in order to nab every Demiguise moon? Yes. But is it thrilling to prepare overpowered potions and hostile flora in Hogwarts Legacy’s Room of Requirement before journeying by broomstick or via the Floo Network to every corner of the map? Also yes.

Hogwarts Legacy has raised the bar for future Harry Potter games unbelievably high, what with all the customization options it boasts and how extraordinary its spellcasting combat is. A playable Quidditch minigame would be all that many fans need to be won over by Hogwarts Legacy 2, and it’s anyone’s guess whether it’ll choose to excavate the 1800s further or dip its toes into another era that the Harry Potter franchise has yet to.

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A fifth-year student arrives at Hogwarts with a rare ability to perceive and wield ancient magic. Players can explore  and adventure through the open world of Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and the Forbidden Forest, all while attending classes, learning spells, and brewing potions.