Marvel’s Wolverine has already made a huge number of sales in the three days since its launch, even though would-be fans keep suggesting it’s not worth the Adamantium on its retractable claws. Despite them, Insomniac’s new superhero blowout has already surpassed Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding 2 in lifetime sales on PS5.
Head of market analysis Rhys Elliott explains in Alinea Analytics’ latest Substack newsletter that the PS5-exclusive Wolverine has quickly amassed a $130 million fortune, while Death Stranding 2 falls just short of that with $129 million in total PS5 sales – though it’s been out on the platform for over a year now. Similarly, Wolverine has already sold a heavy heap of 1.9 million copies on PS5, while Death Stranding 2 lags with 1.8 million total sales.
These numbers help put into perspective PlayStation’s decision to abandon Kojima‘s upcoming stealth game Physint, to its new publisher Xbox’s delight. The underwhelming Wolverine has an overall 77 Metacritic score, with over 3,500 user reviews giving it the more harsh 6.4 rating, while Death Stranding 2 boasts an 89 Metacritic score and an 8.7 user score, sure. But who needs their PS5 games to have critical value when they could make easy money instead?
After all, “Wolverine is already the top-performing new PlayStation Studios game on PS5 this year,” Elliott explains. It’s sold more than double Marvel Tokon and sci-fi shooter Saros, “but you’d never guess from the DiScOuRsE,” Elliott continues.
Some loud people are finding Wolverine annoying. They don’t like the quicktime events you can’t fail, or the colorful scent trails – colloquially known as “fart gas” – that some players think are as offensive as yellow paint. But GamesRadar+ guides managing editor Leon Hurley lets the truth come out in our three-star Marvel’s Wolverine review: “Marvel’s Wolverine is never a bad experience, just an underwhelming one full of odd choices.”
That’s satisfactory enough for anyone simply looking for a good time with a Wolverine missing his armpit hair, and so Marvel’s Wolverine will likely continue to sell.
“The situation is that Wolverine is now the #6 top-grossing PS5 game of the year, despite only being on the market for a few days,” Elliott says. It’s already catching up to Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, which has made $133 million on PS5 since July, and Crimson Desert, which racked up $160 million in PS5 revenue since March – so it’s selling at a faster rate than any of those games, too.
The only PS5 game launched within the past three years that Marvel’s Wolverine can’t keep up with is Insomniac’s acclaimed superhero adventure Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which made $250 million in three days.
“So yeah, Wolverine will keep selling, just not at Spider-Man heights,” Elliott says. Sometimes, you’re your own worst enemy.