Insomniac GamesPlayStation 4 exclusive Marvel’s Spider-Man was always going to perform well, given it was a genuinely well-made game starring one of the most popular superheroes on the planet.
As it turns out, Insomniac Game’s critically-acclaimed adventure has blasted past everyone’s wildest expectations to become the best selling superhero game in US history, beating out the equally wonderful Batman: Arkham City, according to United States-based sales tracking firm NPD.
That Marvel’s Spider-Man managed to outpace a 2011 multiplatform game in less than a year is nothing short of spectacular, quite frankly. If you were wondering what the rest of the top ten best selling superhero games in the US are, you can take a look below, courtesy of industry analyst Mat Piscatella.
It's time for #ComicCon2019!
Video Games are a huge part of the Comic landscape.
Below are the lifetime sales leaders for Superhero Video Games from The NPD Group.
Congratulations to Marvel's Spider-Man, the best-selling Superhero Video Game of all-time in the U.S.! pic.twitter.com/2MF3jObYpH
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) July 18, 2019
Looking at the top ten, it becomes abundantly clear that people are super into Spider-Man and Batman, which is probably why we only ever seem to get good superhero games starring those characters. I still live in hope that I’ll see a Daredevil game one day, however.
Warner Bros dominates the top ten with the sublime Arkham Trilogy, the excellent DC Injustice fighting games, and a string of LEGO titles, the latter of which always seem to sell like thoroughly warmed-through cakes, to be fair.
Marvel’s Spider-Man is king of them all though, and is impressively the only exclusive title on the list. Released last September, Insomniac’s open world web slinging epic was praised for its tight combat, fluid traversal, and excellent story.
In my own review, I said that Marvel’s Spider-Man was “a triumph on almost every level. Even the occasional bit of padding in the story and some repetitive crimes can’t get in the way of a game that looks incredible, plays even better, and manages to tell one of the most exciting stories in a video game this year.”
Insomniac GamesMore recently, Insomniac surprised fans by adding two free new costumes to the game that reference the recently-released Spider-Man: Far From Home; the handsome revised version of the classic suit (love the red and black), and the stealth suit, which is destined to be known as the Night Monkey outfit (you’ll understand when you see the film).
It’s unclear when exactly we’ll hear details on a follow up to Marvel’s Spider-Man, but given the game’s ridiculous success, a PS5 follow-up is almost inevitable.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.