'God of War: Ragnarok' is Sony’s fastest-selling first-party title

engadget.com:

God of War: Ragnarok has sold more copies in its debut week than any other first-party PlayStation title, according to the official PlayStation Twitter account. Sony says the game tallied 5.1 million sales through its first week, placing it ahead of The Last of Us Part II, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Ragnarok’s predecessor, God of War (2018).

The AAA action-adventure epic, released on November 9th, has become a commercial and critical darling. In addition to moving tons of copies, it currently holds a 94 percent score on Metacritic, based on 135 critic reviews. That’s the same score as the previous game. Our review of the PS5 version of Ragnarok commended the satisfying combat with the Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos, majestic set pieces and surprising twists. And our own Nate Ingraham thought the more varied enemies were a huge improvement over the 2018 title. His one serious reservation was with the narrative which he found overly long, and at times seemed bogged down by a lack of editing.

Comparing sales with past Sony exclusives isn’t always apples-to-apples. The company has used various periods of time for different games, presumably to fit the moment’s PR needs. For example, it announced first-three-days sales for The Last of Us Part II (four million in 2020), Marvel’s Spider-Man (3.3 million in 2018) and God of War (3.1 million in 2018). However, Ragnarok’s first-week sales nearly doubled those of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which sold 2.7 million during its first week in 2016.