Gears of Wars 3's sales success in its home country was all but assured before release, and given the great reception it's received from critics, we'd be inclined to believe that it has reached 3 million units in sales, as reported by VGChartz. What's more surprising is the game's sales success abroad, as it landed atop the UK charts in its first week and near the top of Japan's despite tough competition from major new releases in both countries.

Edge, one of our sister publications from across the pond, has acquired the UK all-formats software chart for Gears' first week of release. Despite launching the same week as the perennial top-selling F1 racing franchise, Epic's shooter managed to outsell Codemasters' racing sim. It should be interesting to see if the two highly-anticipated franchises continue to sell with one of the year's biggest European releases -- FIFA 12 -- landing this week.

With a much tougher sales battle in the American shooter-averse and Xbox-deficient country of Japan, Gears managed to eke out a respectable first week on the sales charts, landing in fourth place with a total of 56,113 unit sales. Andriasang's report of the Media Create charts notes Gears managed to outsell a few new Japanese releases, including Monster Hunter Portable 3rd PSP the Best and Shadows of the Damned. It also managed to outsell Square Enix's Dragon Quest Collection, which was only in its second week of release on the Wii. As the only Xbox 360 game to land on the chart, it also boosted console sales, boosting the Xbox 360 from the 8th-best-selling system last week to the 5th best selling this week.

You can see the full sales charts for the UK and Japan by visiting Edge and Andriasang, respectively.