In yet another example of a successful film or TV show raising the profile of a related game, Hollywood blockbuster Spider-Man: Brand New Day has brought new players to the years-old Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 game.
Sony and Insomniac’s 2023 open-world action game has reportedly sold an impressive 316,000 copies since Brand New Day arrived in cinemas worldwide on 30th July. That’s according to estimates by Alinea Analytics’ Rhys Elliott.
That sales number covers both PC and PlayStation 5, and amounts to an $11m (£8.14m) bump in revenue for Sony. Incidentally, 20 percent of the copies sold were physical, according to the report. Some people didn’t even buy the game at all, opting instead to subscribe to PlayStation Plus, where the full game is available as part of the subscription’s middle Extra tier.
The boost to Spider-Man 2 was so strong it caused a spike of over one million daily active users for the first time since the game’s launch week, nearly three years ago.
Elliott believes the spike was caused by a mix of the film’s success and marketed hype, alongside well-timed discounts. On PS5 during the “film window”, Spider-Man 2 was on sale for $30. That’s the same price it was during a different promotion in February, but back then it only sold 6,300 copies per day compared to an estimated 15,000 copies sold per day now. PC Steam sales saw a similar boost despite a more expensive $40 price.
Indeed, it didn’t hurt that Spider-Man 2 also received new in-game treats aligned with Brand New Day’s release, in the form of a new costume directly inspired by the one seen in the film.
Spider-Man 2’s lifetime sales are now a meaty 18.2 million copies, per Alinea’s estimates, 92 percent of which are on PS5; that’s over $1.2b (£888.6m) in sales revenue. This reinforces the power of Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise for Sony.
Except, after more than a decade making Spider-Man games, Insomniac now needs a break, and is deviating from Spidey with a Marvel’s Wolverine game due 15th September. This won’t have the colossal brand-power of Spider-Man behind it, though some of the X-Men are due to appear in new Marvel mega-film Avengers: Doomsday in December. It’s also a much more linear game than the Spider-Man games were, as we discovered speaking to Insomniac earlier this year.
