Gears of War 4 has an underwhelming first week in the UK

The Gears of War franchise has been one of Microsoft’s biggest money makers since the release of the first game back in 2006, when it joined the likes of Halo and Forza. However, since the release of the Xbox One most of Xbox’s exclusive franchises don’t seem to be doing not as well as they did back in the Xbox 360 era. And sadly for the Xbox division, Gears of War might be following the steps of the disappointing sales of Halo 5. According to the German market research institute Gfk, launch sales of Gears of War 4 (which released on October 11th) managed to reach No.2 on the United Kingdom charts, and that means it sold more than Mafia III but less than Fifa 17, which puts the latest Gears installment between 55,000 and 105,000 units.

The sales numbers might not seem bad at first glance, but comparing them to the previous Gears games puts things into perspective. Gears of War 2 and Gears of War 3 sold 220,000 units and 323,000 units on their first week respectively. Even Gears of War: Judgement, a game fans and consumers didn’t care much about, sold 80,000 units, numbers that could have beaten Gears of War 4. There might be many reasons for the disappointing results of Gears of War 4, perhaps the marketplace isn’t the same that it was during the last generation, perhaps people are saving up their money for the holidays, or perhaps Gears of War has less followers than the ones it once had, but the results nevertheless show a decline in interest.

Microsoft is in a difficult position, their new Intellectual Properties like Sunset Overdrive and Quantum Break haven’t reached expectations and their old established series like Halo and Gears of War have struggled to move the numbers they once did. Only Phil Spencer and his team know what comes next for the Xbox One and its exclusives, but I sure hope things start looking up for them.