Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Becomes Fastest-Selling PlayStation Studios Title

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 for the PlayStation 5 sold over 2.5 million copies within its first 24 hours last week Friday, making the game PlayStation Studios fastest-selling title.

Sony announced the achievement through the company's social media platforms last Monday. The Marvel video game breaks the record previously held by 2022's God of War: Ragnarok as the fastest-selling title for PlayStation Studios, selling 5.1 million copies last year during its launch week.

The latest instalment in the superhero open-world franchise developed by the Sony-acquired studio Insomniac Games continues off of the events that transpired from 2018's Marvel's Spider-Man and 2020's Marvel's Miles Morales.

For Marvel's Spider-Man 2, the hero pair of Peter Parker and Miles Morales fight off against formidable villains in the comic universe's rogues gallery. Apart from a central plot, both Parker and Morales have to deal with their personal issues in the game. Players can freely switch from Parker and Morales.

Among the new game's villains is Kraven the Hunter, who wishes to test his abilities in New York. He is joined by Sandman, a thief with the power to control sand. Finally, the Venom symbiote makes its first appearance in the franchise, a prominent extraterrestrial villain that looks for a host to corrupt in exchange for immense strength.

An acclaimed web-swinging adventure

Gaming industry pundits and the PlayStation player base lauded the Spider-Man sequel for the storyline, gameplay and technical aspects of the video game.

A review by The Guardian gave Marvel's Spider-Man 2 five out of five stars, saying that Insomniac Games' attempt to balance out new mechanics and gameplay, combined with an impressive and expanded rendition of the New York map, makes the game an essential title for PS5 owners.

The review closes with: "This is what mainstream action-adventure video games should be: a big, wholehearted fantasy, invested with rewarding details and loaded with conflict and emotion."

In their review of the game, IGN gave it an eight out of ten, stating that the sequel to the latest adventure of the New York crime fighter is one of the best experiences in any video game this year. The bombastic set pieces that the game presents provide immersive moments that are reminiscent of the thrills found in the Spider-Man comics and movies.

The gameplay received slight criticism from the game journal, citing that the side activities embedded in the bigger New York map made for some slight tedium. They continue that the addition of these activities was something that game developers have been struggling with.

IGN also gave significant praise to the music score, noting that the sweeping themes are worthy of a blockbuster movie.

Ultimately, the IGN review wraps up their review of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 as a must-play for fans of the web-slinging superhero, citing that the game will "make [you] feel like Spider-Man, too".

Another sequel

Should there be a demand for a sequel starring the villain Venom, Insomniac Games senior narrative director Jon Paquette would still like to wait for more reactions from the player base.

In an interview with Insider, Paquette said that feedback from their player base will be important for their decisions regarding a sequel, but discussion about it will be resumed after "we've all had time to sleep and take vacations".

Insomniac Games recently released a patch to fix a few visual bugs and gameplay fixes. A bug that gained attention throughout mainstream media was a Cuban flag hanging in Miles Morales' room. In canon, Morales is of Puerto Rican descent.

The launch of the game is not without issues, however. Physical editions of the video game from the UK and Europe were reported to have technical difficulties during installation. Both Sony and Insomniac Games haven't released a statement about the problem.

Apart from Spider-Man, the studio has announced that they are developing another game from another prominent Marvel IP, Wolverine.