Looks like Master Chief is still the king of gaming. After topping the UK All-Formats chart, Microsoft has announced that Halo 4 raked in $220 million in global sales during its first 24 hours on store shelves. That’s a massive number, so massive in fact that we thought we’d put it into perspective for you.
For one, the game will now reach $300 million in global sales in its first week, a stunning accomplishment no doubt. These numbers also put the game as the biggest Halo launch in history and also, the biggest entertainment launch of the year. Lifetime sales for the franchise are now north of $3 billion and the game’s fanbase is still strong, with over 4 million players logging in over the first five days, achieving the record for the largest number of players in the history of the franchise. During those five days, gamers put in over 31 million hours and the total gameplay hours for the franchise now number over 5 billion.
“We’re thrilled that ‘Halo 4’ has emerged as the biggest U.S. entertainment launch of the year,” said Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios. “Thanks to the millions of fans worldwide who helped make this another record-breaking launch for the ‘Halo’ franchise, ‘Halo 4’ is kicking off a strong holiday season and has become the must-have blockbuster experience of the year.”
“Consumer demand and excitement for ‘Halo 4’ is even greater than we anticipated,” said Tony Bartel, GameStop president. “Day-one sales of ‘Halo 4’ make it the biggest ‘Halo’ launch in GameStop history and the biggest game launch on any platform so far this year in our stores.”
So, it seems like its a good time to be a Microsoft exec. Aside from staggering sales, Halo 4 is also killing it with critics, earning a respectable 87 on Metacritic. Not too shabby. And of course, all of this success is well deserved. As I’ve said before, it’s a fantastic game and is a serious contender for GOTY in my books. Both the campaign and online portions are near flawless and I’m having a great time with it.
What do you guys think? Are you enjoying Halo 4 as much as we are?
