Epic Games today announced that since the end of the Gears of War 3 beta, pre-orders for said game have easily hit the one million unit mark.
In reaching this milestone it has also become the fastest pre-ordered Xbox exclusive title since the 360’s inception.
“Consumer demand for ‘Gears of War 3’ has been incredible,” said Bob McKenzie, Senior VP of Merchandising at GameStop. “It is one of the few times in our history that we’ve seen a title hit this level of pre-order numbers four months out from launch, putting ‘Gears of War 3’ on track to be one of the year’s biggest blockbuster gaming hits.”
“An overwhelming success – we can’t thank the fans enough,” said Epic Games Design Director Cliff Bleszinski. “While the beta was a fun way to give players an early taste of our game, it also provided us with invaluable feedback to help us refine and polish ‘Gears of War 3’ to ensure it’s truly the culmination of the trilogy we promised to the fans.”
The beta which lasted four weeks saw over 1.29 million players sign in and play Gears of War 3 and a massive 145 different countries participating. Other milestones include:
- 249 years worth of matches played
- More than 11 million matches completed
- More than 927 million kills recorded
- More than 131 million executions performed
- More than 23 million deaths by chainsaw
- Nearly 23 billion bullets fired
- 4.9 billion ribbons and 291M medals earned
- 435K people earned the Beta exclusive Thrashball Cole skin to use in the retail game when it launches in September
- 234K people earned the Beta exclusive Gold Retro Lancer to use in the retail game when it launches in September
So forget Call of Duty and Battlefield 3 it looks like Gears of War 3 may set itself up as the game of the year if these figures are anything to go by.
