How many copies did Gears of War sell? — 2023 statistics

The Gears of War series has sold over 41 million units.

(Source: VG Chartz, PushSquare)

• Gears of War sold 5 million units.
• Gears of War 2 sold 5 million units.
• Gears of War 3 sold 3 million units.
• Gears of War Ultimate Edition sold 1 million units.
• Gears of War Judgment sold 1 million units.
• The sales stats for Gears of War 4 and 5 are unavailable, but sources say Gears 5 sold better than Gears 4.
• Gears of War 5 was beaten in sales by Borderlands 3 in 2019.

In the first line of stats, we can see that the Gears of War series has sold tens of millions of copies based on available information, with the real number likely being much higher. From what we can tell, the most popular games were Gears 1 and 2, with the other games having descending sales. Despite this, Gears of War still has a very strong following and it will likely grow in the future as new content is added to the series.

The original Gears of War cost $12 million to make.

(Source: Polygon)

• The game made over $100 million in revenue so it was quite profitable.
• With production costs increasing, Gears of War 3 ended up closing 4-5 times more than the original game.
• It came to a halt when Epic Games realized that Gears of War 4 would have cost over $100 million to make and stood to put the company out of business if it did not succeed.
• This caused Epic to forfeit the rights to the Gears of War series to Microsoft, which was more financially stable at the time.

Through the next two lines of stats, we can see the massive change in the required budget to produce a game, with the original Gears of War only costing $12 million. However, since Gears of War came out at pretty much the perfect time for a game like it, it is no wonder that it did so well in the first place.

Gears of War: Judgment cost $60 million to make.

(Source: GameSpot)

• The game ended up earning the company over $100 million.
• Shortly after this, the Gears of War IP was transferred to Microsoft.
• Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games has stated that it was dangerous ground to tread since the failure of the game would have resulted in the failure of the company.
• Part of the turbulence of this situation was blamed on the new console age with the release of the PS4 and Xbox One.

With the rising popularity of console gaming and a more turbulent situation in the gaming industry, where popular franchises can lose relevance overnight, this is the point where the Gears of War franchise’s legs started to get a bit wobbly. The company had massive increases in production costs, but 2014 was the year when the Gears of War IP was sold to Microsoft which continued the pricy development of Gears of War 4 and released it in 2016.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition players scored 41.2 million kills during the open beta.

(Source: Twitter)

• 1.6 million chainsaw kills were made.
• 5.9 million executions were performed.
• 1.7 million curb stomps were performed.
• There were 145,580 frag tag deaths.
• 1.1 million matches were played.
• Players spent 120 years playing the game.
• The beta was played in 66 different countries.
• 786,415 users played the beta.

Open betas are a great way for developers to get players into the game early so they can lay the hype foundation, but they are also a great way of collecting valuable data that shows them where the game performs well and where it is lacking. When you look at the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition beta, you will notice that players managed to accumulate some seriously impressive stats over that period, indicating that the gameplay is excellent and that it works well.

The Gears of War 4 esports scene has awarded $3.1 million in prize pools.

(Source: Esports Earnings)

• The game had 152 tournaments.
• The highest prize pool was awarded at the Gears Pro Circuit Boston 2019 at $300,000.
• The rest of the tournaments had prize pools ranging from $300,000 to $370.
• The most successful Gears of War 4 player is Billy “MentaL” who has earned $313,176 across 86 tournaments.
• He is ranked #729 in the world and #133 in The United States.

The gameplay of Gears of War allows it to be a very competitive game, and that is reflected in the total earnings that Gears of War 4 has distributed to professional players over the years with over $3.1 million in earnings. This series is extremely satisfying to watch because the gameplay is brutal and fast-paced, so it’s no surprise that they would do quite well on the esports scene.

When Microsoft acquired Gears of War from Epic Games in 2014, the series had sold 22 million units and generated $1 billion in revenue.

(Source: VGC)

• Jeff Grubb claimed that Gears 6 was in full development after two other coalition games were canceled.
• The next game should be fully next-gen, featuring Unreal Engine 5.
• The reason two other projects were canceled was in part due to the large-scale layoffs at Microsoft.

This was an announcement that the Gears of War community had been waiting for with bated breath for years. Microsoft has recently faced some issues with employment, deciding to lay off over 10,000 employees for various reasons. Because of this, the studio developing the Halo series took a hit but it will continue developing its next Halo game. The same thing happened with The Coalition which has stated that two games have been canceled while Gears 6 has become a top priority.

Gears of War 2 sold more than 2 million copies during its debut weekend.

(Source: Game Informer)

• Gears of War was the best-selling title of 2006.
• Gears of War 3 pushed the franchise past 1 billion sales, becoming the second Xbox franchise to accomplish that, after Halo.
• Gears of War fans played more than 2.3 billion hours of multiplayer by 2016.

In this line of stats, we can see that the Gears of War franchise has recorded some monumental moments in the gaming industry, breaking sales records for entire years and establishing itself as a 1 billion sale franchise. Other than that, we can also see that the fans of Gears of War amassed a tremendous number of hours in multiplayer mode in 2016. It is only natural to assume that the franchise has accumulated dozens of billions of hours in multiplayer since 2016.

Gears of War remasters are confirmed for the future.

(Source: XFire)

• Fans thought that this information was not actually true and began to give up.
• Nick Baker confirmed his original claims about the remasters, but couldn’t say much.
• The only thing he said was that the remasters were happening and that more news will become available as time goes on.
• The remasters are supposed to be of the original Gears of War trilogy.
• They will most likely release the remasters as a collection, and it should come out before Gears of War 6.

Aside from confirming that the new Gears game is in the works, the developers have also stated that they have the full intention of remastering the original trilogy to bring it closer to new and returning fans that would love to see the games in all their glory. This is a good move for The Coalition because they are capitalizing on the franchise and making sure that fans have something to enjoy until the next game comes out.

Gears of War: The Card Game is coming out.

(Source: GameRant)

• The game is supposed to come out on April 10th, 2023.
• The game is played similarly to Hearthstone, although each player controls one of the opposing factions of the series.
• There is no collecting involved as this is an LCG game.
• There is a campaign with 15 different scenarios to play through.

Card games have a surprisingly strong grip on the gaming industry. You would think that AAA games are all the rage and hold most of the fanbase, but games like Hearthstone, Slay the Spire, GWENT, and many others are just as popular as the newest games. Although the Gears of War series doesn’t seem like the best series to have a card game, the game looks promising and well-designed, so we can expect only the best from Steamforged games!

A Gears of War Netflix adaptation is in the works.

(Source: What’s on Netflix)

• The series was announced on November 7th, 2022.
• Netflix doesn’t have just one project in mind, having stated that they are working on multiple adaptations.
• They intend to first adapt the video game series, then make an animated adult series.

Ah yes… a video game adaptation made by Netflix. You know, these things are better taken with a grain of salt because video game adaptations are notorious for being of very low quality and they usually never stick to the source material faithfully. For the Gears of War adaptation, you just have to wait and see how it will turn out.

Dave Bautista really wants to play Marcus Fenix in the Gears of War Netflix adaptation.

(Source: Coming Soon)

• The retired pro wrestler has been trying to play Marcus Fenix since 2018.
• He has stated that it has been his “dream role” and has refused to talk about other roles like Fast and the Furious.
• He has pitched the idea to Warner Bros. but they decided to pass on it.
• He has even tweeted a video of him donning some Gears armor and reiterating his ability to play Fenix.

This line of information is a bit silly because Dave Bautista, the ex-WWE wrestler, and actor has fervently expressed his desire to play Marcus Fenix in a Gears of War adaptation, even going so far as to create a custom video of himself wearing Trooper Armor and telling Netflix that he couldn’t make it any more obvious that he wants to play the role.

To sum up

And that would be all we have to say about the Gears of War series and the grueling road it took to reach the top of the 3rd person shooter genre. This is one of those series that is a bit of a niche choice in the gaming industry because its gameplay dynamic is not for everyone. Nevertheless, Gears has accumulated a massive following over the years and continues to be a fan favorite and the fanbase cannot wait to see the newest game as well as the remasters. From the information we have presented here, you can see how successful a game series can become when released at the right time and when you nail your target demographics to create something that will last forever. We sincerely hope that you are happy with what we had to say and that you have learned something new!