XBOX may have its first big hit of 2026.
Gears of War: E-Day isn’t launching until next week, on October 6, 2026. But even this early, we’re seeing signs that it could be both a critical and commercial success.
On MetaCritic, The Coalition’s latest release has reached an 86 Xbox Series X|S metascore, based on 54 critic reviews. Subsequently, it has an 86 PC metascore, based on 27 critic reviews.
Subsequently, as reported on Insider Gaming, the game has reached high player numbers on Early Access. As of this writing, it hasn’t been a full 24 hours yet but Gears of War: E-Day has reached a 20,374 concurrent player peak on Steam, based on SteamDB data.
After Asha Sharma announced that Gears of War: E-Day will be a permanent XBOX console exclusive, this positions the game as console seller. We’ll see soon enough if it leads to an increase in sales of XBOX consoles alongside the game itself, but it’s a fortuitous outcome for the XBOX team in trying times.
