Gears 5 released just last week, earlier for those that purchased the Ultimate Edition of the game or have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and was met with great reception from fans and critics alike. Today, Microsoft announced that the game has achieved the biggest launch of any Xbox Game Studios, the company’s first party studios, game released on the Xbox One.
Over the course of the game’s opening weekend, Gears 5 drew in over three million players back into the war on Sera. This number was double that of Gears of War 4‘s first week performance back in 2016. However, the game didn’t surpass Halo 4, the current record holder, back when it released in 2012 on the Xbox 360. On the PC side of things, the game had outperformed Gears of War 4 on PC nearly thrice over. It also achieved the biggest debut for a Xbox Game Studios game on Steam as well as being Xbox Game Pass on PC’s biggest launch.
Some of the success the game has found appears to be due the game launching on Xbox Game Pass. Ever since Microsoft announced that all first party games would release day and date on the service back when it launched, this is the biggest of their first party titles, and their second biggest franchise, that launched on Xbox Game Pass. With Microsoft having a plethora of different deals to get the service at a discounted rate, it makes sense that the game is performing well and attracting millions of players.
Elsewhere, Batista is now available for players to download for free! Gears 5 is currently available for Xbox One and PC via purchase or through Xbox Game Pass on console or PC.