Sony has revealed the latest ‘Spider-Man’ release, ‘Spider-Man 2’ has become the fastest selling game from PlayStation, having sold over 2.5 million physical and digital copies within the first 24 hours.
Developed by Insomniac Games, the release has won tons of praise since it arrived last Friday for the PS5. However, it also received some criticism as the main story takes about 15 hours to complete.
This extends to around 40 hours, with included side-content, which is a normal length for video games, but other 2023 releases are able to be played for hundreds of hours.
‘Spider-Man 2’ has been applauded for its representation of Puerto Rican culture, but criticism arrived after its flag was confused with Cuba’s in the main character’s house. The developers have claimed to be fixing the mistake.
Despite the title, it’s actually the third game of the series, with the other two arriving in 2018 and 2020.
This latest edition takes place in virtual New York City, but for the first time, gamers have the choice to play as Peter Parker or Miles Morales.
This release was one of a series of high profile games launched last week, including new titles for Mario and Sonic.
‘Super Mario Bros Wonder’ and ‘Sonic Superstars’ drew headlines after the rivals released games in the same week for the first time in over 30 years.
‘Spider-Man 2’ has outperformed in boxed sales, becoming the biggest physical video game launch last week. It’s now one of the highest-rated PS5 titles on Metacritic.
Despite becoming the biggest physical launch of the year on PS5, it has yet to reach the heights of ‘Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,’ which sold over 10 million copies in three days.
Released by Nintendo in May, it remains the biggest physical video game launch this year.
‘Spider-Man 2’ physical sales make up part of the total 2.5 million copies sold, in which most would have been downloads.
PlayStation’s Head of Business Operations, Eric Lempel said “Insomniac Games holds itself to incredibly high standards when it comes to delivering engaging and innovative gameplay experiences. I want to say thank you to the fans – we truly hope you are enjoying your time playing as Peter and Miles in this amazing adventure. The majority of games sold these days are digitally downloaded.”
“The market was heading in this direction before the pandemic hit – in 2019 in the UK, around half of games were sold digitally while half were sold in physical stores, but since 2020, that number has jumped and over 70% of games are downloaded. There are still millions of boxed games sold every year, and you can’t download a console or a controller. But it is now a much, much, much smaller part of the market.”
