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Elijah is a freelance news writer at Polygon. He was an associate editor at The A.V. Club and Paste, and has been featured in outlets like Game Informer, Fanbyte, Unwinnable, and more. He loves media in all forms, from fighting games and horror flicks to slow cinema and visual novels. He's from the Greater Boston area.
Logan seems to have survived mixed reviews and public humiliation
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Don’t believe everything you see on the internet. After Marvel’s Wolverine became a laughingstock on social media, with widely circulated clips blasting the game’s “fart trail” UI and lackluster chase sequences, the game seems to have done quite well from a sales perspective. According to new data from industry analyst group Circana, Marvel’s Wolverine was September's best-selling game in the United States across physical and digital. Not bad for a console exclusive with an already infamous reputation.
September was packed for game releases, with eight of the ten bestsellers coming out that month. Sports games did well, as always, with NBA 2K27 in second, EA Sports FC 27 in third, and Madden NFL 27 in tenth. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave came in at fourth — again, an impressive feat given it was a console exclusive — followed by The Blood of Dawnwalker, Wardogs, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Halloween: The Game, and Ace Combat 8.
While these numbers capture only U.S. sales, Sony has released last month's EU PlayStation Store figures, where Wolverine came in second behind EA Sports FC 27. Previous sales data from Ampere Analysis suggests Wolverine sold particularly well on disc, with 35% of salesbeing physical. Given that Sony is ending disc production for PlayStation games starting in 2028, the game’s success there doesn’t fit well with the company’s narrative that its customers are no longer interested in physical releases. Overall, Ampere’s data estimated that Wolverine sold around 2.35 million copies in September.
Why did Wolverine get so much backlash?
After years of hype and anticipation, Marvel’s Wolverine launched to lukewarm reviews, with many critics taking issue with its repetition, shallow gameplay, and weak storytelling. While the game wasn’t outright panned, and some praised its visuals and spectacle, it didn’t get anywhere near the glowing praise many of Sony’s other AAA first-party titles have received in recent years.
If that wasn’t enough, Wolverine was caught up in the backlash over Sony’s decision to end support for discs. This PlayStation exclusive was being promoted around the same time that Sony made its poorly received announcement, with fans of physical media flooding the comment sections of anything PlayStation-related, Wolverine included, to make their dissatisfaction known.
Perhaps the main reason Wolverine was drubbed is that it was an easy target for trendy clips. It embodied many game design elements players have come to hate, like overexplaining where to go next (scent trails) and overprioritizing cinematic presentation instead of gameplay.