Marvel's Spider-Man 2 makes $11m in 2 weeks on PS5 and Steam thanks to Brand New Day, reports analyst: "One of the clearest transmedia halo effects we've ever measured"

It's been nearly three years now since Marvel's Spider-Man 2 first launched back in 2023 on PlayStation 5, and over a year since it dropped on PC – but it's seeing quite a spike in players now, and it might all be thanks to Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

The latest movie in Tom Holland's lineup of Spider-Man adaptations has been making rounds in theaters for a couple of weeks now, already standing as the highest-grossing movie of the year – but it's not just having an impact on the film end… it's also apparently motivating folks to dive into Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, reports as much, sharing some new estimates in an online post.

"The new Spidey movie has given a massive lift to Spider-Man 2 on PS5 and Steam (Alinea Analytics estimates)," he writes. "So far, Spider-Man 2 has sold another 316k copies since Brand New Day hit cinemas on 30 July, generating $11m+ across PS5 and Steam in under two weeks. About 20% of the film-window PS5 copies were physical, and another 274k players jumped in for the first time via PlayStation Plus."

That's… pretty huge. I mean, $11 million is no small figure – especially not this long after the game's release. An uptick in active users is notable, too, according to Elliott.

"In total, Spidey 2 has slung its way past 18.2m copies sold (92%+ on PS5) and over $1.2 billion (!!!) since launching nearly three years ago," he says. "This past weekend it topped 1m daily active users for the first time since launch week, roughly 2.6x its pre-film daily engagement."

The analyst explains that "some smart discounts had an impact" here potentially, but "hype around the movie did most of the work here, as shown by the pricing data in our platform." In other words, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is mostly responsible for Marvel's Spider-Man 2 re-rentering the limelight.

Elliott points to specific sales as examples here, highlighting how the game is selling better post-film than it has with previous discounts.

"This is one of the clearest transmedia halo effects we've ever measured," Elliott explains. "And it's still an untapped opportunity. Right now, these lifts happen mostly by accident. Brand New Day landed almost three years after the game. Imagine if a platform holder or publisher managed to align a major game and a major film."

That would certainly be quite the spectacle… "If only dev timelines and delays weren't so hellish," that is.

"Movie and especially game development cycles are notoriously unpredictable, and syncing two multi-year, multi-hundred-million-dollar productions to swing in together is a logistical nightmare," the analyst concludes. "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."

Honestly, so would I – just look at what's happening with Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

Cut Spider-Man: Brand New Day cameo star Rosario Dawson said she had a social media post with her grandson "ready to go" before she found out it was axed