Microsoft and Sony performed a rather unusual (especially on Sony's side) shooter game exclusive exchange on August 26, when Helldivers 2 launched on Xbox Series S and X and Gears of War Reloaded brought the series to PlayStation 5 for the first time. Whereas the latter game is certainly not the only Xbox title available on Sony's console following the policy switch to full-on multiplatform, Helldivers 2 is a unicum that is unlikely to be repeated any time soon. There was a lot of demand for it, though, what with the Xbox crowd always having been shooter-friendly, and the fact that a live service always benefits from being on as many platforms as possible.
Now that it's been a little over a week since these launches, game analyst (and Wccftech friend) Rhys Elliott from Alinea Analytics has posted an overview of how each release has performed so far. Unsurprisingly, Helldivers 2 turned out to be a lot more popular on Xbox than Gears of War Reloaded on PlayStation 5. According to the data gathered by the analytics firm, the remaster of the first title in the Gears of War series only sold around 259K units on PS5, whereas Arrowhead's hectic sci-fi cooperative game about squashing alien bugs is already nearing the million with 926K units. Helldivers 2 even outsold itself on PlayStation 5: back when it launched on Sony's console, the game sold around 633K units in the first six days.
As for Gears of War Reloaded, we know the game has surpassed one million players. Alinea Analytics says it has reached 1.3 million at this point, but a million of those were from Xbox, despite those users knowing the game all too well. Most of those players likely accessed it from Game Pass, too. The PC userbase is really minuscule: around 41K players, per this data.
Gears of War Reloaded also performed poorly compared to Forza Horizon 5, which sold nearly six times as many copies on PS5 in the same timeframe. Granted, perhaps it is not entirely fair to compare a remaster of a 19-year-old game to two much more recent games that are still among the hottest titles of the respective genres.
Alinea Analytics also shared more highlights from August 2025's hottest games. Peak remained the most downloaded with 4 million downloads, but Delta Force was close behind it with 3.7 million downloads, owing to the recent console launch and a resurgence on Steam as well. Grounded 2 secured the third place with 2.2 million downloads.
When it comes to premium games, Mafia: The Old Country has sold over 1.2 million units at this point, half of which on PlayStation 5. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is at 500K units, though it's still early days given that it debuted exactly a week ago.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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