What was reported
TrueAchievements says E-Day's Xbox player count makes it the second-biggest game to launch on Xbox in 2026, behind only Forza Horizon 6. The Coalition's shooter officially launched on October 6, 2026. In its debut week it drew 16.6% more Xbox players than Minecraft, which put it first on the weekly Top 40 chart.
The week-ending-October-12 chart also shows how far E-Day climbed. It went from sixth place the previous week to first. Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox and Call of Duty followed it in that order. Forza Horizon 6 sat in sixth.
The launch comparisons
TrueAchievements keeps a running list of the top Xbox Game Pass debuts of 2026. Its top five currently reads:
| Rank | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | Forza Horizon 6 |
| 2 | Gears of War: E-Day |
| 3 | Halo: Campaign Evolved |
| 4 | Subnautica 2 |
| 5 | Minecraft Dungeons 2 |
The percentage gaps it reports:
- E-Day pulled in 8.6% more players at launch than Halo: Campaign Evolved, which had taken second place when it launched in July.
- E-Day pulled in 164.6% more Xbox players at launch than Minecraft Dungeons 2.
- It also beat Subnautica 2, so it is both the second-biggest Xbox launch and the second-biggest Game Pass launch of the year.
- It reached only 67.3% of Forza Horizon 6's debut Xbox player count. Forza Horizon 6 keeps its title as the biggest Xbox game launch since 2024, at least.
TrueAchievements' own explanation for the Forza gap is the racer's more accessible age rating and wider appeal to casual and core players. That is the outlet's reading, not a measured result.
How to read the numbers
The data deserves some care.
- It is a sample. TrueAchievements builds its weekly charts from a representative sample of 3.1 million Xbox accounts supplied by Game Trends. The sample is not limited to TrueAchievements members. Chart positions and percentages are therefore estimates of relative activity, not a census.
- It does not show sales or revenue. TrueAchievements does not publish an absolute player count for E-Day. Don't turn "67.3% of Forza" into a raw number without a Forza figure that uses the same platform, time window and method.
- Game Pass blurs the picture. Every game in the top five is on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Activity data can't separate subscribers who tried it from people who bought it.
- There is a coverage gap. TrueAchievements notes its data leaves out PC player counts for EA Play and Ubisoft titles. That can slightly depress those titles' rankings.
- Weekly rank is not launch rank. First place on the weekly chart only says E-Day was the most-played title that week. The launch ranking is the separate comparison that puts it behind Forza Horizon 6.
A competing view on commercial performance
Other analysts are describing the same launch more cautiously. Spanish outlet Vandal cites an estimate that E-Day sold about 230,000 copies in its first week. The same estimate says 1.7 million players accessed it through Game Pass. Of those, 722,000 reportedly paid an extra 30 euros for Premium early access. I haven't seen the underlying analyst report, so treat these figures as unverified estimates. They do show why "second-biggest launch" and "commercial success" are different questions, especially for a Game Pass title.
Launch problems and context
The launch hasn't been trouble-free. GamingHQ reports that E-Day had server attacks and mixed community reactions in its opening week. TrueAchievements also lists a related story about a DDoS attack that caused long waits and login problems. Strong activity figures can sit alongside a rough launch.
The strong opening also fits what TrueAchievements saw earlier. It reported that the early-access multiplayer beta was enough to put E-Day at number seven on the Xbox Top 40. Early-access activity came in 7.5% below Forza Horizon 6's early-access player count. That Forza gap was smaller than the gap at launch, so E-Day trailed Forza by less in early access than it did once the game opened to everyone.
Bottom line
On TrueAchievements' sampled Xbox data, E-Day is the year's second-biggest Xbox launch. It is ahead of Halo: Campaign Evolved and behind Forza Horizon 6. It also led the most recent weekly chart. This is a good sign for the Gears franchise and for Game Pass as a way to launch big first-party games. Microsoft hasn't published official player or sales numbers in the reporting reviewed here. The ranking shouldn't be read as proof of profit, long-term retention or subscriber growth.