An estimated 1.7 million people played Gears of War: E-Day through Game Pass, according to Alinea Analytics analyst Rhys Elliott, making its first-week copy sales only part of the launch picture. Alinea estimates the game sold about 230,000 copies, with Steam accounting for most of them.
Steam led estimated first-week sales
Elliott’s estimate puts Steam sales at 168,000 copies, compared with 62,000 across Xbox consoles and PC. Those figures are estimates, not sales numbers confirmed by Microsoft; GamesRadar independently reported the same platform split.
The distinction between platform access and ownership matters here: E-Day is also available through Game Pass. The 1.7 million figure refers to people who accessed the game through the subscription, not additional copies sold, and it should not be added to the sales total as if each player bought the game.
Premium upgrades add another revenue stream
Alinea estimates that 722,000 Game Pass players paid $30 for the Premium upgrade, which included five days of early access and extra content. Counting those upgrades, Elliott said nearly 950,000 people paid something to play E-Day, though that is not the same as nearly 950,000 full-game purchases.
The revenue estimate also points to a different balance than the copy count: Xbox generated roughly $26 million of about $37 million overall, while Steam contributed around $11 million. Elliott characterized the figures as soft, but argued that outright sales alone understate the number of players who paid for access or an upgrade.
Game Pass makes the sales total harder to interpret
Elliott contends that Game Pass has reduced premium sales for E-Day and describes the $70 edition as functionally dead on Xbox. That is his assessment, not a confirmed measure of what subscribers would otherwise have bought.
Circana analyst Mat Piscatella offers an important caveat: Game Pass players already pay for the service, and not every subscriber who tried E-Day would have purchased it outright. The launch therefore combines a relatively small estimated copy count with a much larger subscription audience and substantial upgrade revenue, making any single number an incomplete measure of its reach.
