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US sales data has named NBA 2K27 as the year’s most successful video game, while Insomniac’s Wolverine has overcome the online ribbing to become Sony’s best performing launch since 2024.
For the longest time, the best-selling game of the year was Capcom’s Resident Evil Requiem, a feat it deserved considering it’s a fantastic sequel and one of the series’ best entries. Although it was helped by the fact that it came out in February and has had all year to accrue its sales.
According to new US sales data, though, it’s been knocked into second place by another sequel, that being NBA 2K27 – this year’s entry in 2K’s long-running series of basketball sims.
The game technically launched late August via early access and then saw a full launch in September. And yet despite selling well enough to overtake Resident Evil, it doesn’t seem to be all that popular with its playerbase.
While NBA 2K27 saw good enough reviews to earn an average Metacritic score of 78, its user score is a more dismal 3.2/10.
A quick glance through the user reviews shows this isn’t the result of any concerted review bombing campaign; people just don’t like the game.
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‘Take a stand and skip this game because a message needs to be sent to 2K that it’s not OK to put out redundant c*** like this,’ reads one.
‘NBA 2K27 is absolutely horrible. The developers clearly don’t listen to the community, and they continue to let cheaters ruin the game without banning them, even when players report them,’ says another.
There are also frequent complaints about NBA 2K27’s implementation of microtransactions, with one review saying, ‘This isn’t a basketball game anymore, it’s a slot machine wearing a jersey.’
To make sure this isn’t an isolated case, we checked NBA 2K27’s Steam page as well and even there, the user reviews are inundated with complaints, with the game sporting an average ‘Mixed’ rating.
One especially long review, from someone who paid for the deluxe edition, season p***, and multiple microtransactions compares the game to working a second job and then, after 70 hours of playtime, they say they had their account banned with zero explanation.
‘Never in my thousands of hours on video games have I experienced something this unapologetically heinous, corrupt, and utterly miserable. This game has stolen every fragment of joy left in my heart and all it left me with is a soul full of rage and hatred,’ reads another review.
This one calls it ‘one of the worst [NBA 2Ks] to date’ and blasts it for numerous bugs and gameplay issues, while also accusing it of being pay to win.
All this suggests that NBA 2K27’s success comes simply from the popularity of basketball as a sport, than any great love for the games themselves. As it has a far more casual reach and offers multiplayer, it’s an easier sell for the non-gamer crowd who only buy one or two games a year to play with friends.
It’s the same for the EA Sports FC football games and Activision’s Call Of Duty, both of which are likely to outsell NBA 2K27 by the end of the year (although it’s obvious what the biggest seller of 2026 will be).
In a similar vein, the same US sales data reveals Sony’s Wolverine game to be the best-selling game of September, despite it being met with underwhelming reviews and becoming a punching bag on social media.
Clearly, the online reactions were not indicative of real life and the popularity of Wolverine as character was enough to prop the game up. In fact, Circana’s Mat Piscatella says Wolverine enjoyed the biggest launch month of any Sony published game since Helldivers 2 in 2024.
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