Gears of War 3 Sells More Than 3m Copies in First Week

Microsoft and Epic have reason to celebrate. The highly anticipated end to the Gears trilogy - Gears of War 3 - has eclipsed 3 million units first week. This covers a period of 5 days in both Americas and EMEAA. This both marks 50% growth over Gears of War 2 and means that it outsold the first weeks of both previous iterations combined.

Gears of War 3 also claims the biggest launch of 2011 so far, surpassing Pokemon Black /White's western debut. It also claims the 6th biggest X360 launch week all-time, worldwide, just behind Grand Theft Auto IV.

Gears of War 3 saw decent growth in both Americas and EMEAA, selling 2.15M units in Americas (up 850,000, 65%) and 850,000 in EMEAA (up 260,000, 31%). The franchise typically sees around 6-6.5 million units lifetime, but Gears 3 is set to buck the trend and should surpass 8 million units.