According to Sony’s supplemental information, that figure covers sales to players as of November 4, 50 days after the game’s launch on September 15. Sony also said Wolverine contributed to improved results for its gaming division, though it didn’t specify how much revenue or profit the game generated.
For comparison, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 sold 2.5 million copies in its first day, reaching 5 million after 11 days. Ghost of Yōtei, meanwhile, managed 3.3 million copies in 32 days. Those are different games with different audiences, but they do give us some idea of what Sony’s biggest releases have achieved in recent years.
Personally, I’d expected Wolverine to be closer to those numbers. It’s a major game from Insomniac, the studio behind the Spider-Man series, starring one of Marvel’s most recognisable characters. That doesn’t make 2.4 million a bad result, but it does seem a little lower than I would have guessed.
There are a few things to consider, though. Having the Marvel name attached doesn’t automatically mean a game will sell by the bucketload. Sony also published Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls in August, and while the two games are very different, Alinea Analytics estimated that the fighting game had sold around 750,000 copies across PS5 and PC by September. That’s an estimate, rather than an official Sony figure.
Wolverine also had a rougher time of it before launch. Insomniac suffered a major cyberattack in 2023, resulting in a huge amount of material being leaked, including information about Wolverine. In the weeks leading up to release, footage of the game attracted plenty of criticism online, with some players taking aim at its linearity and hand-holding game design.
It’s hard to say if this did or did not have en effect on the game. The internet can make a relatively small group sound much bigger than it is. Still, the game then arrived to a more divided critical reception than Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, with reviews praising its performances and presentation while others criticised its repetitive combat and approach to storytelling. Its early Metacritic score was 78, below the scores earned by Insomniac’s three Spider-Man releases, and is generally on the lower end of PlayStation’s first-party releases.
It also launched in a busy September, with games including The Blood of Dawnwalker, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Silent Hill: Townfall and EA Sports FC 27 all arriving during the month. I imagine the combination of competition, reviews and the pre-release discussion could have had an impact, although we can’t say how much any one of those factors affected sales.
Sony hasn’t said whether Wolverine met its expectations or disclosed the game’s final budget, so it’s too early to draw conclusions about its profitability. And with the holiday season coming up, there’s still plenty of opportunity for Logan to find a few more buyers.
Personally, I’ve played and Platinumed the game and do plan on getting a review out. Generally, I found it to be enjoyable enough but certainly not anything special. Liam McIntrye is absolutely awesome as Wolverine, and the acting strong across the board. But the writing lacks bite, some of the characterizations annoyed me and the combat gets far too repetitive far too quickly for a game build on stabbing people repeatedly.
