US game sales: Marvel’s Wolverine leads September chart
Circana reports Sony’s highest launch-month game revenue since Helldivers 2, while NBA 2K27 takes the year-to-date US sales lead.
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Circana reports Sony’s highest launch-month game revenue since Helldivers 2, while NBA 2K27 takes the year-to-date US sales lead.
Marvel’s Wolverine led September 2026 US game sales, according to Circana figures. In comments published by IGN on 23 October, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella attributed PlayStation 5’s hardware boost primarily to the game.
The PS5-exclusive action-adventure game from Insomniac topped the chart despite launching halfway through September. The chart includes retail and digital purchases, and Circana’s reporting period ran from 30 August to 3 October.
IGN reported a 22% increase in PS5 sales, citing Bloomberg and Circana, without specifying whether that figure measured units or revenue, or identifying the comparison period. Eurogamer’s 22 October report identifies September’s 22% increase as units sold compared with a year earlier.
Piscatella told IGN that Wolverine primarily drove the hardware boost, while NBA 2K27 and Grand Theft Auto VI also likely helped. That is his explanation for the increase, not a measurement of how many console purchases each game caused. He added that Xbox Series did not receive a similar sales boost during the month.
Piscatella also said Wolverine ranked 11th in year-to-date game sales and that its hardware bundle appeared to have sold out. He said its longer-term sales performance remained to be seen.
Piscatella said Wolverine delivered the highest launch-month dollar sales for a Sony-published game since Helldivers 2, released in February 2024. That comparison measures revenue, not copies sold: Eurogamer reports that Wolverine launched at $70 exclusively on PS5, while Helldivers 2 launched at $40 on both PC and PS5.
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NBA 2K27 fell from first to second in the monthly chart but overtook Resident Evil Requiem to become the US sales leader for 2026 to date.
GamesIndustry.biz labels the overall top-10 chart as projected. Its entries for Wolverine and NBA 2K27 include actual digital point-of-sale figures—recorded digital purchases—while some other entries include estimates of digital sales.
Circana estimates that total US spending on game content, hardware and accessories fell 1% to $4.8 billion, GamesIndustry.biz reports. Content spending fell 2%, led by a decline in mobile spending, even as console and PC content spending increased.
| Category | Spending | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Total market | $4.8 billion | −1% |
| Game content | $4.2 billion | −2% |
| Hardware | $362 million | +12% |
| Mobile content | — | −14% |
| Console content | — | +8% |
| PC content | — | +27% |
PlayStation 5 led console sales by both revenue and units. Eurogamer reports that its higher price accounted for part of the revenue increase. Xbox unit sales reached their lowest recorded September level, below the previous low in September 2025.
| Console | Dollar sales | Units sold |
|---|---|---|
| PlayStation 5 | +43% | +22% |
| Switch 2 | −12% | −14% |
| Xbox Series X|S | −2% | −27% |
Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled for release on 19 November. That launch is still ahead of the market, while Piscatella’s assessment concerns the games and demand behind September’s results.
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Correction ·
Corrected the wording of the English and Armenian versions.
Update ·
Circana’s Mat Piscatella attributes PS5’s hardware boost primarily to Wolverine, while IGN reports a 22% sales increase.