Spider-Man 2 becomes fastest-selling video game ever made by PlayStation

Got anywhere between 15 and 40 hours to kill? Many of us wish we did, although it seems there are plenty of Spider-Man and video game fans around the world that do.

That’s the conclusion we can draw from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 becoming the fastest-selling game ever made by PlayStation, as revealed by Sony. Released on Friday last week for PlayStation 5, worldwide sales passed 2.5 million physical and digital copies in its first 24 hours.

Rave reviews for Spider-Man 2

Rather confusingly, Spider-Man 2 is actually the third game in the series, developed by Insomniac Games in conjunction with PlayStation Studios and Marvel Studios. In any case, it turns out that it’s pretty good, with critics calling it “the best Spider-Man game of all time” and “about as good as superhero gaming gets”. And that despite huge expectations before its release.

Peter Parker and Miles Morales both playable characters for the first time

As was the case in other recent versions, events take place in a virtual New York City, with gamers able to play as Spider-Man’s “original” alter ego, Peter Parker, who’s been on the go since 1962, or Miles Morales, the bi-racial son of an Afro-American father and a Puerto Rican mother, created in 2011. This is the first video game in which the latter is a playable character.

There has been plenty of praise for how the game represents Puerto Rican culture, although it didn’t take long to discover the Caribbean island’s flag had been confused with Cuba’s in the main character’s house. Oops.

“An epic storyline” to “get lost in for hours”

Eric Lempel, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Marketing at PlayStation had the following to say about the release of the new game, “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is Insomniac Games’ third instalment in the franchise for PlayStation. Built from the ground up to take advantage of the unique features of PlayStation 5, the goal was to massively build off the action, storylines, and features from the first two games. With an epic storyline, two playable Super Heroes, a visually-stunning Marvel’s New York, and so much more, this is a game you can get lost in for hours. On behalf of Sony Interactive Entertainment, I want to say thank you to the fans – we truly hope you are enjoying your time playing as Peter and Miles in this amazing adventure.”

How many hours is too many hours?

And games will have plenty of time to get to know Peter, Miles and Spider-Man himself in this particular adventure. Although the game contains around 40 hours of content, which is fairly typical, the main story takes around 15 hours to complete, which hasn’t been to everyone’s liking. “Epic” does indeed seem to be the word.