Gears 5 is a hit. The only hard numbers we have to go on are over three million players during its opening weekend. And that three million was enough to dethrone Fortnite off its top spot on the Xbox One’s most played chart.
Xbox’s Aaron Greenberg throws a few more stats of Gears 5’s first-week success:
- Doubled the first-week debut of Gears 4.
- Most played Xbox Game Studios title in its first week since 2012’s Halo 4.
- Biggest launch week of any Xbox Game Studios title this generation.
Props to The Coalition. They deserve every bit of this success. Gears 5 is one of the best complete packages out there. A terrific story combined with two fun co-op modes, and the Gears multiplayer fans already loved. There’s a little something for everyone. All that Gears 5 goodness for $10/month. Or cheaper if you take advantage of the promos the folks at Xbox run all the time.
I liked Gears 4 a lot, but The Coalition is taking it to another level with Gears 5. The franchise is in good hands with Rod Fergusson and company. Forza, and now Gears, are delivering those fantastic first-party games we’ve been waiting for. If this is the quality we can expect from now on, Xbox Game Pass already great value gets even better. And makes the wait for Halo: Infinite even harder.
While it might seem Xbox Game Pass would hurt regular sales, the opposite is the case according to Microsoft. Last year’s State of Decay 2 charted on NPD during its launch month. Plus, being on Game Pass gives big boosts to active player bases. Developers also back up Microsoft’s assertion that Game Pass drives sales. Descenders recently launched on Game Pass and the dev said sales “quadrupled.”
September’s NPD will give us a better look at how well traditional sales were, but Gears 5 is a success no matter what. It knocked Fortnite off its top spot which every big release has failed to do since Epic’s Battle Royale became a cultural phenomenon. All the data from developers and Microsoft says Game Pass drives sales. It should be no different with Gears 5.
Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass is a winner, and with more developers joining Xbox Game Studios, it’ll only get better. Subscriptions are the new big thing in gaming. Microsoft, EA, and Ubisoft all offer vast game catalogs for a low monthly price. We’ll see if any other big publishers or platform holders join them.