Gears of War: E-Day Steam Player Count Breaks Series Records During Second Beta Week

The Gears of War: E-Day open beta has returned for its second week, setting a brand-new concurrent player record on Steam. Following an initial phase that launched exclusively for pre-order customers and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers, the shooter has officially opened its doors to all players on PC and Xbox Series X|S. The expanded availability helped push concurrent numbers on Steam to a peak of 22,084 players.

During the first week of the beta, the title pulled in a crowd of 18,000 concurrent players on Steam, outperforming every previous title in the franchise released on the platform. By comparison, previous entries previously topped out with Gears 5 drawing over 10,000 players, Gears Tactics reaching 7,351 players, and Gears of War: Reloaded sitting just under 5,000 players. These figures strictly reflect Steam activity and exclude players participating on Xbox Series X|S and the Xbox PC app.

Market research data from Alinea Analytics indicates that approximately 1.2 million Xbox console players participated in the initial stretch of the beta during its first week. The current open beta period remains live until August 17, giving players access to a tutorial, the PvP Versus mode, and the PvE Horde Siege mode featuring three squads tackling side objectives and waves of enemies.