head to head
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is reads, and it is a single point.

Execution · Practiced Mastery
A modern Gears entry spanning campaign, Horde, Escape, and ranked versus.

Execution · Competitive PvP
Cover-based shotgun duels testing movement execution and positional prediction in multiplayer.
Gears 5 leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Gears of War: Ultimate Edition leans Execution (Competitive PvP).
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Gears 5
Movement tech and shotgun duels remain the core test
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
Wallbounce movement and gnasher duels demand real hands
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Gears 5
Ranked versus rewards out-thinking human opponents
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
Multiplayer is constant positional mind-games around cover
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Gears 5
Escape and Horde inject some run variance
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
Weapon spawns timed and known; spread mildly random
Gears 5 leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Gears 5
Character ultimates and map control are learnable
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
Map control and spawn timing knowledge structure matches
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.