Marvel’s Wolverine Tops PS5 Sales Charts Despite Negative Buzz

Don’t take everything the internet tells you at face value. Marvel’s Wolverine was mocked relentlessly on social media. Viral clips picked apart its “fart trail” interface and its underwhelming chase sequences. Even so, the game has performed strongly at retail. New figures from the analyst firm Circana show that Marvel’s Wolverine was the top-selling game in the United States in September, counting physical and digital sales together. That is a solid result for a console exclusive with such a notorious reputation.

September 2026 U.S. Projected Top 10 Best-Selling Games Ranked on Physical & Full Game Digital Dollar Sales (Excludes Mobile and Digital Add-On Content)
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-10-22T13:01:49.610Z

September was a crowded month for new releases, and eight of the ten top sellers launched during it. Sports titles performed well, as they usually do. NBA 2K27 took second place, EA Sports FC 27 took third, and Madden NFL 27 rounded out the list at tenth. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave landed in fourth, another impressive showing for a console exclusive. It was followed by The Blood of Dawnwalker, Wardogs, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Halloween: The Game and Ace Combat 8.

These figures cover only the U.S. market. Sony has also published last month’s PlayStation Store rankings for the EU, where Wolverine finished second, behind EA Sports FC 27. Earlier data from Ampere Analysis indicates that Wolverine did especially well on disc, with physical copies making up 35% of its sales. Sony plans to stop producing discs for PlayStation games from 2028. The game’s physical sales sit awkwardly with the company’s claim that its customers have lost interest in physical releases. Ampere’s data puts Wolverine‘s total sales for September at roughly 2.35 million copies.

Why did Wolverine draw so much backlash?

After years of hype and anticipation, Marvel’s Wolverine arrived to a lukewarm critical reception. Many reviewers criticized its repetitiveness, shallow gameplay and weak storytelling. It wasn’t savaged outright, and some critics praised its visuals and sense of spectacle. Still, it fell well short of the glowing acclaim that many of Sony’s other big-budget first-party games have earned in recent years.

The timing made things worse. Wolverine got caught in the fallout from Sony’s decision to end disc support. The game was being promoted just as Sony made its poorly received announcement. Fans of physical media flooded the comment sections of nearly everything PlayStation-related, Wolverine included, to voice their frustration.

The biggest reason for the pile-on may be that Wolverine made an easy target for viral clips. It featured several design habits that players have grown tired of. These include over-explaining where to go next, as with its scent trails, and putting cinematic presentation ahead of actual gameplay.