Marvel’s Wolverine was September’s biggest-selling game in the US — critical reception be damned. Circana’s latest monthly sales data, shared by analyst Mat Piscatella, shows Insomniac’s mixed-reception PS5 exclusive topping the September 2026 charts (covering August 30 to October 3) ahead of NBA 2K27 and EA Sports FC 27 — despite releasing exactly halfway through the month and shipping with no PC version planned.
Sony’s Biggest Launch Month Since Helldivers 2
The numbers are remarkable: Wolverine generated “the highest launch month full game dollar sales for a Sony published title since the February 2024 debut of Helldivers II,” Piscatella wrote. It’s worth noting the comparison — Helldivers 2 launched on PC alongside PS5 at $40, while Wolverine is a $70 PS5 exclusive, meaning Helldivers had to sell considerably more copies to arrive at a similar dollar figure.
Wolverine is already 11th on the year-to-date best-seller list, tracking ahead of Ghost of Yotei’s fall launch a year ago. It also led Sony’s own PlayStation Network digital charts in the US and Canada for September, and finished second in Europe behind only FC 27 — where, as GamesRadar notes, it’s hard to top a major football game. The result follows earlier data showing physical copies made up 51% of the game’s PS5 sales in Europe.
The Market Around It
The rest of September’s story was one of divergence. Total US spending across content, hardware, and accessories fell 1% year-on-year to $4.8 billion, with year-to-date spending now 3% behind 2025’s pace at $41.0 billion. Content spending dropped 2% to $4.2 billion — mobile fell 14%, but console content grew 8% and PC spending jumped 27%. Hardware spending rose 12% to $362 million, but mostly on price, not volume: PS5 unit sales climbed 22% (dollar sales up 43%, Sony’s highest monthly hardware dollar share since May 2025), while Switch 2 units fell 14% and Xbox Series units dropped 27% — a record September low for the ecosystem.
September’s top ten was dominated by new releases: eight of the ten were fresh launches, including Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, The Blood of Dawnwalker, Wardogs, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Halloween: The Game, and Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve. And in one more twist, NBA 2K27 dethroned Resident Evil Requiem as the best-selling game of 2026 so far — a record Eurogamer notes it surely can’t hold for long, with Modern Warfare 4 arriving this month and GTA 6 landing in November.
Sources
- Kotaku — There’s Good News And Bad News About Video Game Sales In September 2026
- Eurogamer — Despite its mixed reception, Marvel’s Wolverine was September’s top-selling new game in the US, making Sony launch revenues it hasn’t seen since Helldivers 2
- GamesIndustry.biz — Marvel’s Wolverine leads US September charts, achieves highest monthly dollar sales for a Sony-published title since Helldivers 2
- GamesRadar — Marvel’s Wolverine beat NBA 2K27 as a PS5 top-seller in US and Europe despite mixed reviews