Marvel’s Wolverine Already Sold 1.9 Million Copies, More Than Death Stranding 2 Made in Its Entire PS5 Lifetime
Marvel’s Wolverine has sold an estimated 1.9 million copies on PS5 and pulled in roughly $130 million in revenue in its first three days on sale, according to analyst Rhys Elliott of Alinea Analytics. That makes Insomniac’s claw-heavy exclusive one of the biggest PS5 launches of the year, and it’s happening despite a critical reception that’s shakier than anything the studio has put out in a decade.
The Launch Weekend Numbers
Per Alinea’s breakdown, about 1 million of Wolverine’s total came from pre-launch digital pre-orders, and physical sales made up roughly 22.9% of total revenue (a dollar figure, not a share of copies sold). Geographically, the US accounts for 53% of the playerbase so far, followed by the UK at 7%, France at 5%, and Canada at 4%. Marvel’s Wolverine launched on September 15 as a PS5 exclusive, PS5 Pro enhanced with no PS4 or Xbox version, priced at $69.99 for the Standard Edition and $79.99 for Digital Deluxe.
Marvel’s Wolverine, hands-on preview gameplay
Beating Death Stranding 2’s Entire PS5 Lifetime, in Three Days
The headline number is what Wolverine’s three-day haul does to Death Stranding 2’s scoreboard. Death Stranding 2 launched on PS5 back in June 2025, and across the roughly fifteen months since, Alinea estimates it has sold 1.8 million copies for $129 million in total PS5 revenue. Wolverine’s opening weekend alone, at $130 million, already edges past that entire run. In Elliott’s own words, Wolverine “just passed Death Stranding 2’s lifetime PS5 copies sold and revenues.”
How It Stacks Up Against 2026’s Biggest PS5 Launches
That’s a different comparison from how Wolverine’s own three-day launch window stacks up against other games’ three-day launch windows. Measured that way, against Alinea’s estimates for other 2026 releases, Wolverine still comes out near the top of the pack, just not at the very top:
- Marvel’s Wolverine: $130 million, 1.9 million copies (3-day PS5 launch)
- NBA 2K27: $127 million (2.4% less than Wolverine)
- Ghost of Yōtei: $121.9 million (6.3% less)
- Death Stranding 2’s own 2025 launch window: $51.7 million (60.3% less)
- Spider-Man 2: $250 million (roughly double Wolverine’s opening)
Narrow the comparison to Sony’s own first-party lineup this year, and Wolverine’s launch is the biggest by a wide margin: it’s already outsold MLB The Show 26 (1.5 million copies, $99 million on PS5), Bungie’s Marathon (1.8 million copies, $60 million across all platforms), Housemarque’s Saros (510,000 copies, $40 million on PS5), and Sony-published fighter Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls (740,000 copies, $49 million across all platforms).
A Launch Overshadowed by Mixed Reviews
The sales numbers are landing alongside Insomniac’s roughest critical reception in years. Marvel’s Wolverine currently sits at 77 on Metacritic across 132 critic reviews (89 positive, 39 mixed, zero negative), down slightly from the 78 it opened at when the review embargo lifted, as we covered when reviews first went live. Kotaku has since described it as the lowest-scoring PlayStation Studios release of the entire PS5 generation. Most of the online conversation has stuck to the same complaints that dogged launch week: the glowing blue “fart gas” scent trail guiding players around, repetitive combat encounters, and a general sense that it plays in the shadow of Insomniac’s own Spider-Man games. Some outlets, including GameSpot, have pushed back on part of that pile-on, framing pieces of the discourse, particularly around a handful of viral quicktime-event clips, as overblown online negativity rather than a fair read of the whole game.
What Happens Next
Elliott’s own read is cautiously optimistic rather than triumphant. He pointed out that Insomniac’s Spider-Man games combined critical acclaim with sales legs that lasted for years, and expects Wolverine’s tail to look different: shorter and choppier, but not nonexistent, given the mixed reviews. For Sony, that likely means Marvel’s Wolverine ends up remembered as a genuine commercial hit that also became one of 2026’s most argued-about PS5 exclusives, which, for a character built around claws and a bad attitude, might be a fitting legacy either way.
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Picture Source: PlayStation
