Wolverine on PS5 is not a flop as it sells 1,900,000 copies in three days

The Wolverine game would have to be genuinely awful for it sell poorly (Sony) While it hasn’t been as successful as the Spider-Man games, Wolverine’s solo outing is estimated to be the biggest PlayStation 5 launch of the year so far. Given the lukewarm reception and online mockery it received ahead of its launch last week, there was a good chance that Insomniac’s Wolverine wasn’t going to be the massive sales hit that publisher Sony expected. Considering developer Insomniac’s track record, and the popularity of Wolverine as a character, it would have been a shock if it had bombed, but predictably that doesn’t seem to be what’s happened. While the publisher itself has not yet shared any official sales figures, new estimates make it clear that Wolverine has not been a sales flop, as it has sold 1.9 million copies in its first three days. According to Alinea Analytics, that’s already more than every other Sony published game from this year, including multiplatform releases like Marathon and MLB The Show 26. However, Wolverine’s sales aren’t as strong as Insomniac’s last game, Spider-Man 2, which sold 2.5 million copies in less than 24 hours, making it the fastest selling PlayStation game of all time. Expert, exclusive gaming analysis Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. That’s not an entirely fair comparison, though, since Spider-Man is an inherently more popular character. Plus, Wolverine has an 18 age rating, which limits its reach compared to the more teen friendly Spider-Man games. Interestingly, Alinea adds that of those 1.9 million sales, 22.9% of them were physical, which seems like a lot but is actually considerably less than most other Sony-published games. However, it is notably far less than reported percentages of physical sales for other past Sony published games which, according to Alinea’s estimates, look like this: Astro Bot physical sales – 46.8% Stellar Blade physical sales – 43.3% Death Stranding 2 physical sales – 41.8% Ghost Of Yōtei physical sales – 37.6% Spider-Man 2 physical sales – 35% Rise Of The Ronin physical sales – 32.3% Sony stated, in a previous fiscal report that 78% of all PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games sold in the 2025 fiscal year were digital, which was no doubt a primary contributor to Sony’s decision to abandon physical games altogether. Wolverine having a lower percentage of physical sales compared to other PlayStation 5 games could have been influenced by Sony’s announcement, as customers prep themselves for an all digital future. What they definitely didn’t do is buy more physical copies than usual as a protest. According to The Game Business’ Chris Dring, Wolverine has had the third biggest PlayStation 5 launch in the UK this year in terms of physical sales, losing out only to Resident Evil Requiem and 007 First Light. That’s also a much smaller launch than Spider-Man 2 and just below Ghost Of Yōtei. According to data for first week physical sales in the UK, Wolverine sold approximately 43,000 copies compared to Ghost Of Yōtei’s 45,000 copies. Wolverine did do better than Insomniac’s last Ratchet & Clank game – 2021’s Rift Apart, which managed 29,000 copies – but this also puts it below the likes of God Of War Ragnarök and Horizon Forbidden West. However, those had the advantage of being cross gen games for the PlayStation 4. Ultimately, it seems as if Wolverine has done fine and is by no means a sales bomb, although it remains to be seen how Sony feels about its performance, based on their original expectations for it. For as successful as Spider-Man 2 was, Insomniac was still subjected to job losses and budget cuts. If Sony doesn’t think Wolverine was worth the money, Insomniac’s leaked plans for further Marvel games may be adjusted to only focus on Spider-Man… assuming they haven’t been changed already. Have you picked up a copy of Wolverine yet? (Sony) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. Arrow MORE: Silent Hill: Townfall review – fear and loathing in Scotland Arrow MORE: Games Inbox: Will GTA 6 have a co-op mode? Arrow MORE: Video games should be more like Blood Of Dawnwalker and less like Wolverine – Reader’s Feature GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.