Gears of War E-Day has only just rolled out the first stage of its open beta, and already the series’ records have been shattered on Steam.
According to SteamDB, the multiplayer beta for Gears of War: E-Day has hit a 24 hour peak concurrent player count of 14,331. This is expected to rise as we enter the weekend proper, and people get some reprieve from work.
Compared to other Gears of War games released on Steam, this is a new record. Gears of War: Tactics hit an all-time-peak of 7,351 roughly six years ago, while Gears of War 5 hit a peak of 10,196 and Gears of War: Reloaded came in at 4,819.
There is some important context needed here. The original trilogy is not present here, nor is Gears of War 4. In addition, prior releases like Gears of War 5 would have been available through alternative storefronts like the Microsoft store on PC. In fact, Gears of War 5 was playable on launch relatively cheaply for the price of a Game Pass subscription. It’s very possible that initial player count figures were much higher then: we know through an old Microsoft blog post that it was a record-breaking PC release, apparently tripling the performance of Gears 4 on release.
Even so, it’s likely that the Gears of War: E-Day beta can perform even better. Not only are we not properly enjoying the weekend yet, this week is set aside from those who have pre-ordered the game. For everyone else curious about the game, they can do so without paying a penny next week. One would hope that, given few barriers to entry, a greater number of players will be drawn in.
PvP versus was added to the beta just before it went live due to fan demand, with a horde mode also available to curious third-person shooter fans. The game is looking promising so far, but time will tell whether it will live up to the high bar set by previous installments.
