Gears 5 has seemingly been a massive success for Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service, with The Coalition’s recently released third-person shooter dethroning Fortnite as Xbox Live’s most played game. This marks the first time since Fortnite has been toppled, with Apex Legends, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 each failing to unseat Epic Games’ battle royale blockbuster.
The new data, spotted by Twitter user @BenjiSales, reveals how the Gears 5 Ultimate Edition has topped the list of Xbox’s most played games in the US. Fortnite has fallen into second place, while Grand Theft Auto 5, Rainbow Six Siege, and Apex Legends have also dropped behind it. Gears 5 also tops the list on the UK Microsoft Store.
This marks the first time that Fortnite has slipped from the top spot on Xbox Live since last summer. While Fortnite‘s largest player bases exist on PC and PS4, given the success of Epic’s shooter, it’s no small feat when a game manages to unseat it on any platform.
Impressively, these numbers only take into account the Ultimate Edition version of the game. The standalone edition is counted into the ranking separately, with it also appearing in the top 10, suggesting that Gears 5 has pulled off a huge launch.
First indication of Gears 5 having a massive launch
It unseated Fortnite as the number 1 played game on Xbox Live. To put that in context no game has since last summer. Not Apex Legends, Red Dead 2 or Black Ops 4
I've been predicting a new franchise record for players at launch pic.twitter.com/doQx19PAwV
— Benji-Sales (@BenjiSales) September 11, 2019
While Microsoft hasn’t revealed physical sales numbers for Gears 5, it also managed to top the Steam sales charts, highlighting how its success isn’t limited to the Xbox One and the Microsoft Store. However, as Gears 5 was clearly intended to be a big selling point for Game Pass subscriptions, it topping Xbox Live’s most-played list suggests that it has done just that.
We gave Gears 5 a 4 out of 5 in our review, praising its suite of multiplayer modes and advancements made to its single-player campaign. You can also check out our thoughts on the game in this week’s episode of GR Radio:
