Gears of War sets land speed records everywhere

by: Dan - posted: 11/22/2006 6:32:00 AM

In the last two weeks Gears of War has accomplished two things not seen in a long time. The first was selling 1 million units since the launch to-weeks ago. It is by far the fastest selling title of 2006 and the quickest of any original (non-sequel) Xbox or Xbox 360 game.

The second major accomplishment was that Gears of War knocked Halo 2 off its crown and became the #1 played game on Xbox Live. According to stats provided by John Porcaro of Gamerscoreblog, Gears had 850K unique gamers who compiled 10 million gameplay sessions, unlocking 7 million achievements, all while driving new members to Xbox Live at a clip of 50% daily increases in new paid members.

Gears of War Hits 1 Million Units Sold and Shoots to #1 on Xbox Live
More than 85 Percent of Players Connect to Xbox Live, Driving New Gold Memberships by 50 Percent


As “Gears of War” continues to emerge throughout the world ahead of the holiday sales rush, the Xbox 360 juggernaut has sold an impressive 1 million copies world-wide in just its first two weeks of release—elevating the game to the fastest-selling title of 2006 and fastest-selling original Xbox game of all time.

The battle continues to rage on Xbox Live as well, as more than 850,000 unique gamers have engaged in 10 million gameplay sessions while unlocking an impressive 7 million Achievements. On top of being the #1 title on Xbox Live, “Gears of War” has also driven new members to the network, as paid registrations per day have skyrocketed more than 50 percent since the game’s launch.

Propelling its rise to popularity, Gears of War has been crowned the best next generation game of the year by over 45 publications, earning a 95 percent average review score as tracked by www.gamerankings.com. Critics everywhere overwhelmingly agree and have united to make “Gears of War” one of the best-reviewed games of all time.

“From the very beginning, we knew ‘Gears of War’ would be an industry-defining hit,” said Shane Kim, corporate vice president at Microsoft Game Studios. “As we watched both the game and its hype grow, it became obvious that ‘Gears of War’ was the rare title that could live up to such incredible anticipation, and judging from the reaction of critics and fans, it’s done just that.”