Gears 5 Outsold Gears 4 Despite Being On Xbox Game Pass

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has confirmed that The Coalition's Gears 5 has outsold the studio's previous title, despite both Gears of War 4 and Gears 5 being available on Xbox Game Pass.

Spencer, in an interview with Eurogamer during Microsoft's X019 event, said that giving players choice is important for the company. He also wasn't shy to admit that Gears 5 outperformed Gears 4, though he did not provide any concrete numbers. However, Gears 5 hit 3 million players during its opening weekend, setting a new record for Microsoft's first-party studios this generation.

"Gears 5 sold well for us. It sold better than Gears 4. And we feel good about it," Spencer said. "If people want to make the choice of buying Gears, that's an option we want to give them. I'm not trying to funnel everybody who wants to play Gears into the subscription. It's about giving gamers [a] choice. Certain players will make the decision as part of Game Pass that they'll either want to start to subscribe, or they're already a subscriber and they stay subscribed."

Spencer later said that Gears 5's success is in no small part thanks to the amount of players getting their hands on the third-person shooter through Xbox Game Pass or otherwise.

"What I will say is we're incredibly happy with Gears 5. It did review well. It has a tonne of players," Spencer said. "We're taking feedback on certain things. The economy - I see the feedback on the game as well. But I thought it was a great release in the Gears franchise and it drove a tonne of players who wanted to go play, and that's awesome."

Gears 5 launched on September 10 for PC and Xbox One. The title received fairly positive reviews, with our own review scoring the game a 7/10.