On October 27, Microsoft released Halo 5: Guardians, the long-awaited new installment in its hugely popular gaming series. Today, the company revealed that its launch was the biggest in the franchise"s history.
Microsoft says that it"s racked up over $400 million in worldwide sales of Halo 5 games and hardware so far. That makes it not just the biggest Halo launch ever - bringing the total amount generated by the franchise to over $5 billion - but also the "fastest-selling Xbox One exclusive game to-date".
The company also revealed that, in the last week, gamers have racked up more than 21 million hours of gameplay, including 12 million in campaign mode; and a total of seven million multiplayer matches have been played so far too.
Microsoft also managed to gain an official Guinness World Record as part of its launch efforts:
Halo 5: Live earned a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for the most watched video game launch broadcast, setting a precedent with more than 330,000 unique streams on the evening of the broadcast. Additionally, content from the broadcast generated 5.5 million total views throughout the week. This resulted in a spike in digital sales of Halo 5: Guardians, leading to it becoming the best-selling digital game ever in the Xbox Store for an opening week.
Halo 5: Guardians was launched in a blaze of publicity, with a series of events taking place around the world, including one in London - be sure to check out our report and photo gallery from that event.