Despite excellent press reviews and top spots in sales charts before release, the new Gears of War failed to attract a mass audience on the largest PC platform. After years of waiting for a return to the series' roots and huge production costs, the result is being called a serious disappointment in the industry.
An alarming signal appeared even in early access: peak online players were around 20,000. It was expected that the full release would sharply increase the audience, but after the temporary restrictions were lifted, the figure rose only slightly above 31,500.
For Xbox, this is a particularly unpleasant result after Halo's weak financial performance. However, E-Day still set a series record on Steam, significantly surpassing Reloaded's launch. Against the backdrop of expectations for a flagship project, the result looks modest: for comparison, the new franchise The Blood of Dawnwalker gathered almost 80,000 players.