Ahead of GTA 6, PlayStation 5 Sales Were Up 22%, Likely Due To Wolverine

The latter part of 2026 has been packed with excellent games, all leading up to GTA 6 on November 19, so it's not surprising that PS5 sales have jumped over last month.

PlayStation 5 sales have jumped by 22%, according to a report from Bloomberg, with data from Circana. And, while it's likely that the buildup to GTA 6 has contributed to those sales, it looks like it was September's all-star lineup of games, and particularly Marvel's Wolverine, that were primarily behind the PS5's recent success.

We reached out to Circana Senior Director and Video Game Industry Advisor Mat Piscatella for comment on these recent sales increases, and he told us that despite its middling reception, Wolverine drove quite a bit of hardware sales. "PS5's hardware boost was primarily driven by Marvel's Wolverine. NBA 2K27 and Grand Theft Auto VI also likely helped," he said. However, he added that "Xbox Series did not get a similar sales boost during the month."

When IGN reviewed Wolverine, we gave it a middling 6 out of 10, with reviewer Simon Cardy saying, "Marvel's Wolverine's slick and satisfying combat wears thin well before its conclusion, so much so that even its strong character work can't quite save it from being anything more than okay."

In the weeks that have followed the game's release, the community has also been mixed on the game, and Insomniac has had to respond by fixing some of the more hand-holdy mechanics, like adding a toggle for the ever-present scent trail that guides you to objectives. But, even early on, there were signs that Wolverine was selling.

Now, more than a month after release, Wolverine seems like it was absolutely a success, with Piscatella saying, "For Marvel's Wolverine, [it's] tough to give things a vibe check without understanding folks' frame of reference, but it was the month's best-seller, ranks 11th year-to-date, with a hardware bundle that seems to have sold out and the market's best-selling accessory during the month with the limited edition Marvel's Wolverine DualSense. Seems pretty good to me. But, we'll have to see how the legs are over time. It wasn't as big as say Marvel's Spider-Man 2, but I don't think that would have ever been a reasonable assumption."

That hardware bundle was likely a big reason why PlayStation's sales were so rosy over the last month. The controller looked amazing, and started selling out before the game even launched.

Looking ahead to GTA 6, though, if a game like Wolverine was able to drive hardware like this, I can only imagine that GTA is going to make an even bigger impact. We've already started to see signs of that happening, too. Just a couple of weeks ago, the PS5 Pro started selling out enough that used models started going for as much as $1,400, $500 more than their shelf price. And, to this day, that price still holds, with the PS5 Pro available on both Amazon and Gamestop for $1,399.

At that price, it's going to be interesting to see sales data for this coming month, and how many people are willing to fork over that kind of cash for a new console. After all, there have been rumors this week that the next-generation Xbox Project Helix may cost up to $1,800. There were also leaks that suggest that for the PS6, just the RAM and SSD alone will cost around $680, which could see Sony's next-gen console commanding a similar price.