Following praise from numerous publications (including us here at DualShockers) Microsoft announced today that Gears 5 officially had the best launch of any first-party game this generation.

In its opening weekend, Gears 5 amassed 3 million players in total across both Xbox One and PC platforms. This total is double that of what Gears of War 4 did at launch back in 2016. It is also "the most-played Xbox Game Studios title in its first week since 2012's Halo 4." It's safe to say that the game is off to a very strong start that both Microsoft and The Coalition are surely pleased with.

Part of why Gears 5 had such a strong start though is surely due to Xbox Game Pass. The subscription service wasn't around initially back when Gears of War 4 arrived, meaning that it definitely helped bring in more players this time around. In fact, Microsoft also said that on PC specifically, it was the "biggest-ever launch for Xbox Game Pass for PC, and Xbox Game Studios' best-ever debut on Steam." Even though the series primarily has its roots set on the Xbox consoles, it seems as though PC players were just as eager to start battling the Swarm.

As for what's next for Gears 5, the game today received Batista as a new playable character skin for Marcus Fenix. It'll also surely be receiving a multitude of additional updates in the months and years to come, all of which will be available for free.

Gears 5 is one of my personal favorite games of the year so far and I can't recommend it enough, especially if you enjoy past entries in the franchise. As mentioned, you too can pick it up now on either Xbox One or PC.