Claws and effect.
Marvel's Wolverine may not have had the best critical reception, but that clearly didn't discourage consumers. The action-adventure from Marvel's Spider-Man studio Insomniac has topped US video game sales in September, despite releasing exactly halfway through the month.
That's according to market analysis firm Circana, which noted Wolverine's success includes digital sales and those made at retail. It was such a hit that, as Circana analyst Mat Piscatella wrote, the game delivered "the highest launch month dollar sales" a Sony-published game has seen since Helldivers 2, which released in February 2024. It is worth noting, however, that Helldivers 2 launched on PC alongside PlayStation 5, while Wolverine is a PS5 exclusive. Additionally, Helldivers 2 had a much lower price of $40 compared to Wolverine's $70, meaning the former sold more copies to arrive at a similar point.
Wolverine seemingly helped boost PS5 sales, too, as the console saw a massive 43 percent uptick in dollar sales compared to the same period last year, though some of that is owed to its higher price now compared to then. In fact, PS5 led the month in both unit sales (up 22 percent from last year) and dollar sales across consoles. Switch 2 unit sales fell by 14 percent and Xbox by 27 percent - according to Circana, that means Xbox unit sales dropped to their lowest ever in a September, claiming the record from September 2025.
September, of course, was one of the busiest months for games this year, and that was reflected in the top-ten, which saw eight new releases - including The Blood of Dawnwalker, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, Switch 2-exclusive Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, and PC-exclusive Wardogs. Also among those was NBA 2K27, which, despite failing to claim the top spot in September, surprisingly managed to dethrone Resident Evil Requiem to become the best-selling game this year so far - a record it surely can't hold on to for long with GTA 6 on the horizon.
Circana's most interesting report this year is undoubtedly going to be November's, when GTA 6 arrives, but October's should also be eye-opening, because it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's release month, the other major release of 2026.
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