- Gears of War: E-Day has allegedly sold only over 400k copies over three weeks since its release.
- The sales figure counts both console and PC, suggesting it hasn’t sold as well as Xbox may have expected.
- Xbox Game Pass may have cannibalized a lot of the sales, as it still saw a flood of players despite low sales.
Gears of War: E-Day was Xbox’s first foray into exclusivity after a drastic change in its multiplatform strategy. Therefore, the game’s sales performance matters quite a lot for the gaming business, as it is expected to influence the company’s future approach moving forward.
It was recently revealed that Gears of War: E-Day cost Xbox a whopping $500 million to develop and ship, excluding the marketing budget. A new report now highlights that it has reportedly sold only over 400k copies in over three weeks after launch.
Why it matters: While internal Xbox milestones for Gears of War: E-Day sales are unknown, the relatively low 400k+ sales figure suggests it may not have met expectations of the studio and Xbox executives, especially after three full weeks.
Tom Warren of The Verge reports that Gears of War: E-Day has sold at least 400k copies on Steam and Xbox combined, which is arguably a less-than-expected number for an AAA title in a beloved franchise that cost over half a billion.
However, E-Day still attracted large swaths of players across both platforms. The game has consistently shown up in the top 10 most played on Xbox.com’s US rankings since launch. It also saw more players than Fortnite and Minecraft on Xbox in its launch week.
So the only explanation is that Game Pass cannibalized much of the sales thanks to the day-one launch on the subscription service. On a side note, reputable analyst firm Circana even claimed that E-Day Xbox exclusivity failed to bring new console sales.
It’s unclear whether Microsoft is even happy with its Game Pass numbers for E-Day, and it’s also unknown just how much Game Pass cannibalized its sales so far. Regardless, the third-person shooter needs to roll over 7-8 million copies at least to break even.
Do you think Gears of War: E-Day will sell steadily over the coming weeks and reach a sales figure that justifies its huge budget, or will Game Pass cannibalize further sales? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or join the discussion on the Tech4Gamers forum.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devotedly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.
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