Gears of War: E-Day Metacritic Score

The Metascore breakdown

The 48-review figure is for the main Xbox Series X page, and the all-platform average is also 87, from 68 reviews. One other platform listing sat at 82 from 33 reviews. Metacritic lists the game as rated M for Mature, developed by The Coalition and released on October 6, 2026.

How E-Day ranks against every Gears game

E-Day ranks fourth in the series, behind only the original Epic Games trilogy. It is the highest-rated entry since Epic stopped developing the series. That also makes it The Coalition's best-reviewed Gears game so far, beating both of its previous mainline entries by three points.

Coverage summed it up in two ways. ComicBook.com called it the highest-rated entry since Gears of War 3. GamesRadar described the score as placing it as The Coalition's best take on the series.

Why you may have seen 88 or 89

Metascores shift as more reviews arrive, and outlets reported the number at different moments. Early on, with just 28 reviews, it stood at 87. Later reports caught it at 88 with 49 reviews, and one roundup even quoted 89.

• 87 with 28 reviews — ComicBook.com, shortly after the embargo
• 88 with 49 reviews — The Shortcut
• 89 at one point — TheGamer
• 87 with 48 reviews — the live Xbox Series X page on October 6

All of these were snapshots, so none of them is wrong. The number we use is the one we checked on launch day. It may still move slightly as late reviews arrive.

Metacritic user score

At launch the user score was 8.6, but it was based on only five ratings, so it is not meaningful yet. Metacritic opened user reviews more widely from 12:00pm PST on October 7, 2026. Expect that number to change a lot over the following days.

For a larger sample of player opinion, Steam is more useful. Steam user reviews stood at Mostly Positive, about 77% positive across 4,534 reviews, on October 6. That gap between critics and players is covered in our review roundup.

OpenCritic and other aggregates

OpenCritic agrees closely with Metacritic. It shows a score of 87, a Top Critic average of 88, and 92% of critics recommending the game. The two aggregators land on almost identical numbers, which suggests the consensus is stable.

Individual scores ranged from 10/10 at Pure Xbox and DayOne down to 5/10 at Gamekult. IGN's 9/10 is one of the more influential scores in the mix. You can see all of them in our review roundup.

What critics said behind the 87

The score is driven by combat. Pure Xbox and DayOne both gave 10/10, praising the best feel the series has had, and IGN gave 9/10 for evolving the enemies, weapons and combat. GamingBolt also scored it 9/10.

The points lost come mostly from story. Several critics felt the narrative was thin or emotionally uneven, and VGC's 8/10 summed it up as lacking emotion but making up for it in commotion. Gamekult's 5/10 was the outlier, judging that it falls short of recent rivals.

Critics vs players

There is a clear gap between the 87 from critics and the reaction on Steam. Steam reviews were Mostly Positive at about 77% on launch day, from 4,534 reviews. One report described the game as winning critics but splitting Steam players.

Steam complaints centred on missing series trademarks such as chainsaw duels and meat-shield grabs, a story some found dull, and toned-down leads. Players did agree with critics on the graphics and gun feel. Part of the gap may come from multiplayer, which players could judge but critics could not at launch.

Is 87 a good score?

For this series in its modern era, yes. It is three points higher than both Gears of War 4 and Gears 5, the two previous mainline games from The Coalition. With 92% of critics positive and no negative reviews on the main listing, the consensus is strong.

It still sits below the original trilogy, which scored 94, 93 and 91. Whether E-Day can close that gap in players' eyes will depend on how its multiplayer holds up after launch.

How to check the live score

Metacritic has separate listings per platform, so make sure you are looking at the right one. The Xbox Series X page is the main critic listing, while the all-platforms view combines every review. The two can differ slightly as reviews are added.

The user score only became meaningful after user reviews opened widely on October 7. For player sentiment in the meantime, the Steam review summary is the better gauge, and it updates continuously.

The score covers the campaign only

Critics were given the campaign but not multiplayer during the review period. So the 87 reflects the story mode, not Horde Siege or Versus. Online modes could not be judged before launch.

Some reviewers had played the beta weekends, and IGN described the revamped Horde Siege as a neat evolution of Horde. But that experience was not part of the scored review. Read about the beta on our beta page.

Why the Metacritic score matters to the studio

Metacritic scores can affect developers directly. Skill Up reported, citing Eurogamer, that staff at The Coalition were worried that potential layoffs could mean missing out on a Metacritic-linked bonus due at the end of October. Such bonuses are fairly common in the industry and pay out if a game reaches a target score.

The target score itself has not been made public, so we cannot say whether 87 meets it. What is clear is that the game outperformed The Coalition's previous two mainline Gears games on review aggregates.