Gears of War: E-Day hit a peak of 31,517 concurrent players on Steam on its October 6 release day, according to SteamDB figures reported by Notebookcheck. That’s the highest Steam count any Gears game has reached, and roughly three times the series’ previous best.
Before E-Day, the Steam record belonged to Gears 5, which topped out at 10,196 players in September 2019. E-Day had already beaten that during its August multiplayer beta, which peaked at 22,084, and again during early access, which opened October 1 for owners of the Premium Upgrade, Premium Edition and Collector’s Edition. The full launch pushed it past 31,000.
Interest has held up through the first weekend. Steam’s own player-count API showed 22,746 people in the game on Saturday afternoon, October 10, which is above the beta’s best day.
The numbers come with a big caveat: Steam is only one storefront. E-Day launched on Xbox Series X|S and PC, and players on Xbox consoles, the Xbox app on PC and Game Pass aren’t counted in any Steam figure. Notebookcheck also notes that despite the record, E-Day didn’t break into the top 10 of Valve’s sales chart. On Steam, it sells for $69.99.
Developed by The Coalition with People Can Fly and published by Xbox Game Studios, E-Day is a prequel set on Sera 14 years before the original Gears of War. A PS5 version is planned for later.
Our read: 31,517 is a big jump for Gears on Steam and a small number next to the PC hits of 2026, so both camps will claim it. The more useful signal is the weekend: holding above 22,000 days after launch suggests the Horde and multiplayer modes are keeping people around rather than just the campaign. Compare that with the sales estimates we broke down earlier, and E-Day looks like a game most players are reaching through Game Pass, with Steam as a solid but secondary audience. If you’re jumping in now, our beginner’s guide covers the modes and settings worth knowing first.
Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report
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