Wolverine has sold through 1.9M copies (1M in pre-launch digital pre-orders), generating $130M -
@alineaanalytics estimates.
Of these revenues, 22.9% were physical. As always, these estimates donāt include unsold retail copies, which publishers often report in their sold-in numbers.
Wolverineās early success means it just passed Death Stranding 2ās lifetime PS5 copies sold and revenues ($129M and 1.8M copies). And Wolverine is already the top-performing new PlayStation Studios game on PS5 this year, leapfrogging:
- MLB The Show ($99M and 1.5M copies sold on PS5)
- Marathon ($60M and 1.8M sold across all platforms)
- Saros ($40M, 510K sold on PS5)
- Marvel TÅkon ($49M and 740K sold on all platforms)
Wolverineās top market, by a landslide, is the US, accounting for 53% of the player base, followed by the UK (7%), France (5%), and Canada (4%). Logan is Canadian, after all.
So yes, Wolverine has sold well, but its commercial long tail is limited by its mixed media and streamer reception. Unlike Spider-Man, which reviewed insanely well and has stayed evergreen for years, this oneās tail will be shorter and lumpier, but still there.
Wolverine will have secondary volume bumps driven by MCU X-Men marketing beats, holiday gifting, and new PS5 owners looking for high-budget graphics showcases (Iām looking at you, upgrading GTA 6 crowd).
But make no mistake, Wolverine will keep moving. The backlash was fast and hard, but that discourse will sail clean over the heads of the millions of more passive, mainstream players who make up the bulk of this audience. Those folksāll buy Wolverine for the brand, get it for Christmas, and never once open Reddit to find out they were supposed to be angry.
Wolverine will keep selling, just not at Spider-Man heights. Spideyās been evergreen. Wolverine will be more ever-yellow.
Iāll see myself out... More on the new free Substack (link in bio!)