Critics thought the claws got dull. Players bought it anyway. Marvel’s Wolverine, Insomniac’s PS5 exclusive that launched Sept. 15, has reportedly sold 1.9 million copies in three days, according to Alinea Analytics’ Rhys Elliott, an estimate worth about $130 million that Beebom says makes it the best-performing new PlayStation Studios release on PS5 this year.
The number is an analyst’s tracking, not a Sony figure, and Sony hasn’t confirmed anything. It also lands short of the mark Insomniac set itself: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 sold 2.5 million copies in its first 24 hours in 2023. Elliott put the gap down to the game being “limited by its mixed media and streamer reception.”
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That reception is the story. Wolverine settled at 77 on Metacritic from 115 reviews, the lowest debut score among PlayStation Studios’ first-party PS5 exclusives, against the 87 for Marvel’s Spider-Man in 2018 and 90 for Spider-Man 2, per God Is a Geek. Push Square, Destructoid and TheSixthAxis gave it 8 out of 10, while IGN, GameSpot, Eurogamer and GamesRadar+ landed on 6, according to NerdZap’s review roundup.
The praise and the complaints were consistent. Push Square liked the “fast, gory combat, the brutal takedowns and team combos.” IGN’s Simon Cardy wrote that the “slick and satisfying combat wears thin well before its conclusion.” Almost every review, high or low, singled out the voice acting, motion capture and animation, and Liam McIntyre’s Logan in particular.
The bigger complaint was handholding: constant waypoints and quick-time prompts, which players mocked as the game’s “fart gas trail,” Beebom reports. Streamers weren’t kind either. Kai Cenat, who ran a Wolverine marathon in a Wolverine costume starting at 1 p.m. ET on launch day, reportedly finished the game in about 15 hours and rated it a 6 out of 10, calling it repetitive and recommending that viewers skip it, win.gg reports. It’s a rough verdict from the streamer who had just debuted his own fashion label days earlier.
The sales story is steadier in the UK. GfK’s physical chart had Wolverine at No. 1 on the all-formats list, with Sony’s biggest UK physical launch of 2026, about three times the size of Death Stranding 2’s debut and about 60% below Spider-Man 2’s 2023 opening. Insomniac also had to reassure fans before launch that the disc is complete: senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed said it “will be fully playable on the disc when you purchase it.”
Elliott expects the game to keep selling through the holidays, with Grand Theft Auto VI driving PS5 adoption toward its Nov. 19 release. The next number to watch is Sony’s own.
- Released
- Sept. 15, 2026, PlayStation 5
- Metacritic
- 77, from 115 reviews
- Estimated sales
- 1.9 million in three days (Alinea Analytics)
- UK
- No. 1 on GfK’s all-formats physical chart
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
