Marvel’s Wolverine is the lowest-rated PlayStation first-party game of this generation

Even in a year that celebrates the release of Grand Theft Auto VI, Marvel's Wolverine is still pitched as one of 2026's biggest outings. While Rockstar Games will undoubtedly take the crown with the record-breaking GTA VI as a multi-platform release, the big three of Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony all have their own juggernauts in the form of Gears of War: E-Day, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, and Marvel's Wolverine. Unfortunately for the latter, it's facing a firing squad as critics pass judgement on Insomniac Games' long-awaited comic book caper.

Securing an unwanted record for Sony, Marvel's Wolverine is the lowest-rated first-party game of this generation, meaning the clawed Canadian likely won't be happy with this one.

Marvel's Wolverine is the lowest-rated first-party PlayStation game of the PS5 generation

If things weren't already rocky enough over at PlayStation HQ, Marvel's Wolverine's scores on the doors aren't too pretty. At the time of writing, Metacritic has awarded Marvel's Wolverine a score of 77, based on 112 reviews.

While that's definitely nothing to be sniffed at, it means it's unfortunately the lowest-rated PS5-exclusive game.

Lauding it in first place is 2024's Astro Bot with a jaw-dropping 94/100, followed by God of War Ragnarok with another 94 (based on fewer reviews), and 2020's Demon's Souls with 92. Even if we don't consider Demon’s Souls third place because developer Bluepoint wasn't technically a first-party studio at that point, Insomniac Games isn't far behind because Marvel's Spider-Man has a lofty 90.

While 2024's short-lived Concord languishes in last place with 62, the fact that it also got a PC release means it can't really be classed as a PS5 exclusive.

Marvel's Wolverine is some way ahead of that with 77, but the numbers don't lie, as it's officially the lowest-rated PS5-exclusive outing.

There was plenty of discourse on Reddit, and even though we know Sony isn't exactly flavour of the month due to its controversial decision to kill off discs in January 2028, the haters can smell blood in the water, and they're swarming.

Many said they weren't surprised, with one person writing: "I think those early leaks and the immediate similarities between it and God of War really hurt the game. Then with each reveal it looked more and more like a PS2 era action game, which isn't bad in itself, but for a company like Sony, doesnt really hit that mark of quality you expect. Especially when Insomniac made Spider-Man just before."

Others were more confused as another added: "It seems like this game has had a weird hate campaign against it, not even since it was initially announced, but maybe in the past few months or so. Can someone genuinely explain to me why?"

Someone on X highlighted a seemingly big issue as they concluded: "IMO too many people were expecting it to be another Spider-Man game instead of what it is: a Wolverine game. It is a little hand-holdy, sure, but many of the mechanics you can turn off, I hear. People are complaining it’s not an open world like Spider-Man.”

READ MORE: Top 6 differences between Marvel’s Wolverine and Spider-Man (and 2 similarities)

GAMINGBible's thoughts on Marvel's Wolverine

Our own Richard Breslin passed judgment on Marvel's Wolverine, with his 7/10 review branding it a "brutal hack-and-slash adventure that plays it safe." Eight years after Marvel's Spider-Man first blew us all away, it seems players want something more than a violent reskin of Peter Parker's world.

Richard praised Insomniac for pushing things further, comparing Wolverine more to Sony's lauded Uncharted series than to its Spider-Man predecessors. While it's great fun to stab Logan's claws through an enemy's skull and cycle through an impressive wardrobe of iconic X-Men outfits, Wolverine is bogged down by a few too many QTEs.

Although visually stunning, it appears some questionable character design choices are in danger of taking you out of this world, while one particular takedown describes Lady Deathstrike as a 'Comic-Con cosplayer'.

At least Breslin sees the potential of where Marvel's Wolverine could go, and, like Marvel's Spider-Man from 2018 was the first chapter in a much bigger story, we can already hear that iconic X-Men theme tune playing from here.