Spider-Man: Brand New Day just cleared $1.6 billion at the box office, and that has also led to a surge in sales of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. According to new data estimates by Alinea Analytics, another 316,000 copies of the 2023 game have been sold on PS5 and PC via Steam since Spider-Man: Brand New Day swung into theaters, generating $11 million in sales.
As Alinea’s head of market analysis Rhys Elliot noted online, 20% of the copies sold since the film launched were physical, and another 274,000 players jumped into the game via its availability through PlayStation Plus Game Catalog for Extra and Premium tiers. In terms of pure numbers, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 now sits at 18.2 million units sold–92% of which were on PS5–and has made over $1.2 billion since launch.
“While some smart discounts had an impact, hype around the movie did most of the work here, as shown by the pricing data in our platform,” Elliot wrote. To put this into perspective, AA’s data estimates that the game has sold 15,000 [copies] a day on PS5 at the current price of $29.39, a massive uptick when compared to the February promotion that saw Sony sell around 6,300 units per day. On Steam, sales also increased, with the game priced at $40 on PC.
Could this effect be repeated with the dozens of other video game movie adaptations in development right now, like Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda film? Elliot added that “these lifts happen mostly by accident,” and considering how unpredictable movie and video game development cycles are, syncing up two massive productions to release within one another like this would be a “logistical” nightmare to pull off. “But for the handful of publishers making movies AND games in the same IP, surely one of these has to line up. I’d kill to see that impact,” Elliot concluded.
To coincide with the launch of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 developer Insomniac Games added a PSSR update for PS5 Pro owners and the new “Fresh Start” costume from the movie. The film also took inspiration from the game, with star Tom Holland and director Destin Daniel Cretton talking about how some of the stylish finishers were incorporated into several action scenes. Spider-Man: Brand New Day made another $145 million at US theaters during the August 7-9 weekend, and it looks like it could clear $2 billion globally by the time its run ends, raising the bar for Avengers: Doomsday when it arrives on December 18.
