Marvel’s Wolverine sold an estimated 1.9 million copies during its first three days on sale, generating approximately $130 million in consumer revenue.
The figures come from Alinea Analytics, so these are estimates rather than official numbers supplied by Sony or Insomniac. However, if they are reasonably accurate, Wolverine has enjoyed a very strong opening despite its weaker-than-usual reviews and the fairly substantial online backlash surrounding the game.
Of those 1.9 million copies, one million were digital preorders placed before Wolverine ever launched, meaning another 900k copies were sold after the soft review scores and audience reception became known. Alinea also estimates that physical copies accounted for 22.9% of its revenue, which works out to around $29.8 million generated through boxed copies.
Because Alinea has given us the revenue split rather than the number of physical units, we cannot calculate exactly how many discs were sold. If physical and digital copies had the same average selling price, though, it would equate to roughly 435,000 physical copies. The true number could be somewhat different due to regional pricing, retail discounts and more expensive digital editions, but either way physical appears to have accounted for a substantial chunk of Wolverine’s launch.
Alinea ranks Wolverine as the sixth-highest-grossing new PS5 game of 2026 after just three days. When compared with recent PlayStation Studios releases over the past couple of years and the same three-day launch window, it also performed better than everything in Alinea’s dataset except Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Spider-Man 2 remains comfortably ahead, having generated an estimated $250 million during its opening three days—almost twice Wolverine’s total. Wolverine did narrowly beat Ghost of Yōtei’s $121.9 million launch, while sitting well ahead of Astro Bot at $34.6 million, Stellar Blade at $32.7 million, Rise of the Ronin at $25.7 million and Helldivers 2 at $18.9 million.
Those comparisons aren’t a complete list of everything PlayStation has published over the period. Alinea’s underlying dataset focuses on its highest-grossing PlayStation Studios releases, with smaller games falling outside the revenue threshold. It still gives us a useful picture of where Wolverine’s launch sits, though: below the ridiculous strength of Spider-Man 2, but ahead of several of Sony’s other major releases.
That is a better result than its critical reception might have suggested. Wolverine currently has a Metacritic score of 77, making it Insomniac’s lowest-rated non-DLC release in more than a decade. It has also taken plenty of criticism from players for its excessive handholding, linear structure and general design, some of which I find myself agreeing with.
The opening numbers make it clear that the online pushback has not translated into an immediate commercial failure. Quite the opposite, in fact: 1.9 million copies in three days is a strong launch.
What we do not know yet is how much those weaker reviews and negative player reactions will affect its longer-term sales. Spider-Man 2 launched considerably higher, reviewed far better and had the sort of broadly positive word of mouth that helps a game continue selling for years. Wolverine has the strength of the Marvel name behind it and should receive another boost over Christmas, but I’m less convinced it will have quite the same legs going forward.
