Coalition and Xbox Game Studios launched the second phase of beta testing for Gears of War: E-Day on August 13th. Unlike the first phase, where only pre-order buyers of the shooter and Game Pass subscribers could try the program, everyone can participate in the second phase on Xbox Series X | S and PC. As expected, this set a new record for concurrent players on Steam.
According to SteamDB data, the number of simultaneous players of the “Gears of War: E-Day” beta version on Steam reached a peak of 22,084. The maximum number of people tested in the first phase is 14,331. It is expected that the peak of the Steam beta may increase further over the weekend.
The first phase of beta testing surpasses previous results for a Gears of War game on Steam. “Gears: Reloaded” had a peak online player count of 4,819 last year, “Gears 5” attracted 10,196 simultaneous online players, and “Gears Tactics” had a peak online player count of 7,351.
Alinea Analytics Analyst Rhys Elliott Appreciate The first-day closed beta audience is approximately 1.2 million players in the Xbox ecosystem, including consoles and PCs. At the same time, a large portion of the audience accessed the project through Game Pass rather than through a subscription.
According to Elliott, the beta’s popularity could also increase the number of pre-orders for the Gears of War: E-Day version on Steam by approximately 2x – from 50 to 100,000 copies. He also pointed out that players stay in the beta version for a longer period of time – 24.1% of users play the game for more than 10 hours, 12.7% of users spend more than 15 hours, and 6.5% of users spend more than 20 hours in the beta version.
Previously, The Coalition pointed out 10 changes in the second phase of the Gears of War: E-Day beta compared to the first phase. This phase of testing will last until August 17.