Gears 5 isn’t off to a good start at retail in the UK. Launch sales recorded by ukie track the game in second place for the week, with numbers hitting just a quarter of what Gears 4 achieved in the same amount of time. Meanwhile, Borderlands 3 absolutely smashed it, recording the biggest physical launch of 2019 so far.
It should be noted that ukie’s figures only track physical, boxed copies of each game. And given that Game Pass is such a huge part of Microsoft’s business model these days, we can only assume digital numbers have been stronger than usual.
Still, analysts weighing in on the matter are quick to point out that Gears of War’s brand appeal has sunk in recent years.
Gamesdailybiz publisher Christopher Ding says:
” Gears 5 chose a bad week to launch, and as a result sold a quarter of what Gears 4 did (again boxed sales). On paper, that seems disappointing and suggests the brand’s troubles continue. But we live in a Game Pass world. So who knows.”
While Niko senior analyst Daniel Ahmad commented:
“I honestly think even Microsoft might be a bit shocked by how low packaged software is for Gears 5.
Whilst UK packaged software + full game downloads of Gears 5 are much lower than prior entries in the series, the addition of a Game Pass version has been a real game-changer.”
Although Ahmad also points out that these numbers may be fairly insignificant in the wider scheme of things, too:
“We’re now at a point where packaged sales in the UK for Microsoft titles are a tiny amount and no longer important.
In its first week, Gears of War 3 sold 20x more packaged units than Gears 5 and Gears of War 4 sold 4.5x.
Digital Download and Game Pass are the majority by far.”
You can check out the full top 10 best selling games of last week via ukie below:
Check out our review for Gears 5 and Borderlands 3 preview (review incoming) to hear more impressions and information on both games.
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