Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales was thought to be the PlayStation 5’s flagship launch product, and it appears to have been just that. In data released on the PlayStation Blog, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales was the most downloaded PS5 game in the month of November in North America (U.S. & Canada), followed by Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. The top two slots were flipped in Europe, where Call of Duty took the top spot and Miles Morales came in second.
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales swings to the top of PS Store's first-ever PS5 downloads chart – congrats, @insomniacgames! See the full rundown here: https://t.co/T4GMUgnbUL pic.twitter.com/1AulfXE1zH
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) December 9, 2020
This comes as very little surprise, as Call of Duty continues to be the yearly must-have shooter it’s been for the last half a decade. Miles Morales was highly anticipated as the sequel to the outstanding Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 from 2018. While some speculated that a shorter length game may hurt Miles Morales‘ reception, these figures prove that it was little more than conjecture. A brand-new, shiny, gorgeous Spider-Man game is always a welcome experience, and apparently the masses couldn’t have agreed more.
Other notables:
- Demon’s Souls ranked 3rd and 4th in NA and Europe, respectively
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla ranked 4th and 3rd in NA and Europe, respectively
- Sackboy: A Big Adventure managed to outsell Borderlands 3, Godfall, and Watch Dogs: Legion in NA, while it fell behind Borderlands 3 and Watch Dogs: Legion in Europe
In addition to these numbers, a newzoo article presents PS5 user share broken down by game as of November 15th (pretty much NA launch weekend). Miles Morales comes in 3rd, just behind the delightful fun and free Astro’s Playroom and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Games like Sackboy and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla are absent, while GTAV, Destiny 2, and even Call of Duty: Modern Warfare see continued engagement as last-gen games running via backwards compatibility on the new console.
The biggest takeaway is that Miles Morales is selling on the PS5, continuing PlayStation’s first-party studio legacy of successful and impressive single player narrative experiences. And for those that may have already played it, there’s been a recent update that allows users to utilize performance mode’s smooth 60 fps with ray tracing enabled. These features were separate options at launch, forcing players to choose between buttery smoothness and enhanced lighting. Now they’re both available simultaneously, albeit with a hit to resolution.
[Sources: PlayStation Blog, Newzoo.com]