1m pre-orders for Gears of War 3

Microsoft has announced that Gears of War 3 has passed the 1m global pre-order mark. It’s the fastest title to manage the feat in Xbox 360 history.

In addition, 1.29m people from 145 countries have taken part in the game’s Xbox Live beta, racking up 249 years worth of matches in the process. In doing so 927m kills have been recorded, 131m executions performed and 23bn bullets have been fired.

An overwhelming success – we can’t thank the fans enough,” Epic’s design director Cliff Bleszinski stated.

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.”

Gears of War 3 will be realised on September 20th.