Gears of War: E-Day beta breaks the series' Steam record again

The second open beta of Gears of War: E-Day opened to all players on PC and Xbox Series X|S, and interest kept rising into the follow-up test. According to SteamDB, the event reached 22,084 concurrent Steam players, topping the series' previous beta record before the game itself launches on October 6, 2026.

That earlier record came from the first beta leg, which drew about 18,000 concurrent Steam players. The new result suggests the audience for the test grew rather than cooled off between weekends.

The beta is running from August 13 to August 17, 2026, and includes a tutorial, the PvP Versus mode, and the PvE Horde Siege mode. In other words, players get a broad look at the multiplayer slice ahead of release.

The comparison with other games in the series makes the new peak stand out even more. Gears of War: Reloaded peaked at just under 5,000 players on Steam, Gears Tactics reached 7,351, and Gears 5 passed 10,000. E-Day has now cleared all of those numbers during a beta that is still not finished.

Rhys Elliott of Alinea Analytics said about 1.2 million Xbox console and Windows players tried the first stretch of the beta. He also estimated that Steam pre-orders for Gears of War: E-Day doubled after the beta's popularity, rising from around 50,000 to around 100,000.

Earlier, E-Day preload goes live, giving players early access ahead of the multiplayer beta.

The full game is still months away, but the beta has already twice broken the franchise's Steam record. That raises a simple question: can the final release keep this momentum going?