Circana sells its preview of US hardware sales, so it’s rare that we get a real look at the PS5 sales model like this.
But analyst Mat Piscatella, who said last week that Marvel’s Wolverine was the main driver of Sony’s console sales in September, responded to the skeptics with an actual chart.
The data shows a fairly stable trend from June 27, with two major increases the week of September 5 and the week of September 19. These were of course the weeks that NBA 2K27 and Marvel’s Wolverine were released respectively.
I’m not sure why people were criticizing Piscatella, but I think a lot of people were trying to argue that GTA 6 was the real reason for the PS5’s strong sales month – not Marvel’s Wolverine.
Piscatella writes:
“While the upcoming games may have made some US consumers more open to purchasing a new PS5, it wasn’t until the week that Marvel’s Wolverine dropped that this purchasing decision was activated.
And no, I don’t think we’re yet seeing evidence of an increase in baseline PS5 demand before November.
I think it’s pretty compelling, based on this data, that Marvel’s Wolverine is what accelerated PS5 sales in September, helping it outperform the newer, cheaper Switch 2.
It’s worth remembering that a Marvel’s Wolverine pack was available at launch, which would certainly have contributed to these numbers as well.
It would be interesting to see this same data as we get closer to November 19 and if there is a steady increase in PS5 sales as we get closer to the GTA 6 launch.
Gn tech
