I haven’t engaged with much Harry Potter media in recent years (the abhorent views of the series’ creator has soured me on all things Potter), but I still have fond memories of Quidditch, Harry Potter’s unique broomstick-riding sport. The Quidditch scenes in the movie adaptations were always my favorites, and one of the first games I remember playing consistently on PC was 2003’s Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup. I’m no longer actively seeking out Harry Potter media on my own, but when I saw Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions had launched into PlayStation Plus and was a spiritual successor to Quidditch World Cup, I was curious enough to check it out.
I’m glad I did so because developer Unbroken Studios understands just how entertaining the fictional game can be. Quidditch is a wildly novel sport that finds a magical middle ground between soccer, rugby, and racing. It makes the transition to video game form surprisingly smoothly. As a free PS Plus bonus, Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions is an enjoyable blast from the past for me.
Grab that snitch
In Quidditch Champions, two teams of six fly around on broomsticks, aiming to throw a ball called a Quaffle into one of their opponent’s ring-shaped goals suspended high above the ground. Each goal grants players 10 points, and the team with the most points at the end of seven minutes or the first to reach 100 points wins. That alone is satisfying enough, as flying around on broomsticks and bashing into other players feels intuitive. It can feel like Rocket League at times as I drifted around the pitch in order to be the first to a Quaffle flying through the air.
The various roles players can take on give Quidditch Champions more depth. The Chaser is an all-around role. The Keeper is Quidditch’s version of the goalkeeper, who must make snap decisions on which rings to defend when the opponent is trying to score. The Beater is more defensive, throwing Bludgers and ramming into opponents to get them to drop the Quaffle or temporarily get knocked out.
Finally, there’s the Seeker, which tries to be the first to capture a Golden Snitch released onto the pitch partway through the match. The first Seeker to get a Golden Snitch nets their team 30 points, which is crucial as my Quidditch games often timed out before either team could reach 100 points. Getting just one Golden Snitch was the difference between winning and losing in many matches.
This seems very faithful to what I remember Quidditch being like in the Harry Potter books and movies, and it demonstrates just how well the fictional sport fits into video game form. Each role is for a different kind of player. Those who enjoy movement can play as Chasers or Seekers, while more aggressive players might have a better time as Beaters. I remember this formula working well in Quidditch World Cup, and it’s just as fun here.
Quidditch Champions has more of the trappings you’d expect from a modern game. That includes smooth online play, crossplay, progression systems spread across daily, weekly, and seasonal challenges, skill trees, and lots of player customization options that can be purchased with currency through gameplay. While it seems like a switch could be flipped to introduce microtransactions with how the in-game store is set up, Quidditch Champions only lets players earn currencies through gameplay right now. I also appreciate that it has offline offerings that will hopefully remain accessible if the game’s servers ever do get taken down.
It remains to be seen if Quidditch Champions has legs in 2024’s brutal live service market, but I think it has a good chance at success if it catches on with mainstream Harry Potter and sports game fans who have a service like PS Plus. Even as a lapsed Harry Potter fan who doesn’t plan on getting back into the wider franchise anytime soon, I might still boot up this game occasionally whenever I’m in the mood for some Quidditch going forward.
Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The PlayStation version is available for free throughout September to PS Plus subscribers of any tier, and it will be released on Nintendo Switch sometime before the end of the year.
