Halo 4 drives $220 million in 24 hours
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Microsoft's new sci-fi shooter mints $20 million more than Halo: Reach on launch day, is on pace to hit $300 million in first-week global sales.
Halo 4, the most expensive game Microsoft has ever made, is off to the hottest start in the franchise's history. Microsoft announced today that its new sci-fi shooter minted $220 million on its first day and is poised to haul $300 million in first-week global sales.
Halo 4 blasted past 2010's Bungie Studios-developed Halo: Reach, which hauled $200 million on its first day (in the US and Europe). Additionally, Halo 4's launch day sales are better than 2007's Halo 3, which took in $170 million in 24 hours (in the US alone). Total combined Halo series life-to-date sales now stand at about $3.38 billion, Microsoft said.
Microsoft claims Halo 4's debut is the "biggest entertainment launch of the year" thus far. That record may not hold for very long, as Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops II--already breaking retailer records--releases tomorrow.
In netting $220 million in day-one sales, Halo 4 surpassed the first-day United States box office tallies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and The Avengers, Microsoft said.
Halo 4 also broke the franchise record for most players at launch. During the game's first five days, more than 4 million players spent time in the game, logging some 31.4 million hours. This pushes the total number of gameplay hours across all Halo titles to "well beyond" five billion, Microsoft said.
Additionally, Microsoft's Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Web series has drawn 46 million total views to date, Microsoft said. According to the company, 39 million of these views came through Machinima's YouTube channel alone.
For more on Halo 4, check out GameSpot's review.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
124 comments
To put it in perspective this article is another way for Microsoft and 343 to say..."Thanks FOR YOUR MONEY"... while Laughing To The BANK. I guess that house in Monte Carlo has just been sold.
5 Like Not being a massive Halo fan, i gotta say Halo 4 is extremely well done, both SP campaign and MP are both superb!
lovin the soundtrack too : )
People actually still play the 360??? Well that's news to me!!! I guess people blew the dust off their old systems and took it out just to play Halo lol!
@fadersdream You know I'm just teasing right. I used to be an xbox fanboy until I realised the superior power of the ps3 :P
Um...XBOX is by far the superior system. Halo 4 is the BEST GAME EVER MADE...get your facts straight. ps3 sux
1 Like I haven't enjoyed a Halo game ever since Halo 2 dead out. I'm very pleased with Halo 4.
@BradPoynor Typical weak strawman argument. I'll go back to my real games and leave the generic console shite to the sheep.
Sorry, pinchy... please, feel free to go back to playing Pikmin and leave a REAL GAME like HALO 4 to the hardcore fans
While I don't particularily care for Halo, I am always glad to hear a game doing well as it can only help the industry. Oh yeah, I'm also happy for you who get to enjoy this highly anticipated game that doesn't look like it's dissapionting you at all.
For me it's Dark Souls. That may be because it's the best game this gen and it's fresh in my mind. No, it's the best. My opinion, though. I'm glad you like Halo so much.
1 Like Loving Halo 4 so far.
Too bad there's so much hate from people who haven't played it, though.A couple nights ago a friend of mine, who used to be a huge Halo fanboy, became angry with me for playing Halo 4 at all, attempting to explain to me how Halo 4 is "same graphics, same gameplay, CoD influences, less interesting story, not worth $60, the next game will be called Halo 5: Give Us More Money, etc."
Tough to argue with that crap when they haven't played the game.
1 Like yeah that's a lame =/ a friend of mine that is an xbox fanboy told he wishes not to play halo 4 because it's not made by bungie, but to be honest 343 did ALOT better job of making a halo game then bungie ever did on the xbox360 it's a fact that you can not deny it... truly this game deserves a 9.0 out of 10 not more and not less this game is great!
@ADO300 "but to be honest 343 did ALOT better job of making a halo game then bungie ever did on the xbox360"
--------
To be fair, Halo 4 by 343 has a lower Metacritic score (AA, 87/100) when compared to Bungie's Main Halo Games (Halo 1-2-3-Reach).
I'm not saying I don't like it, I'm just explaining that the majority of the world's critics don't agree that 343 bested Bungie yet.
to be honest halo is not overrated but it's a milked franchise which is true! the only halo games of the series that are a bit "overrated" is halo reach and halo 3:ODST but the rest trust me man their awesome especially halo combat evolved anniversary and halo 4
1 Like @firstclassgamer I can see how from someone, if you dont play it, it can be overrated. But honestly after only playing halo 4 campaign a few hours and multiplayer several hours. I promise you sir -- its not overrated. This one earned its stripes.
3 Like Great news. They deserve every dollar they get with Halo 4. It's honestly the best Halo ever.
is this better then the last few Halo games? i havent liked the last few halo games.
please let me know if this one is better..
1 Like @GH05T-666 I didn't really like ODST or the Reach campaign (had a hard time getting attached to the characters...didn't really care), but Halo 4 is really great.
@GH05T-666 I think sales were a little lower than for Halo 3, but great nonetheless. Factors affecting sales include the studio in addition to all the people that stopped playing Halo because of ODST and Reach not being classic "numbered" entries. Halo 5 won't have that problem, lol (because Halo 4 exceeded expectations and word of that is spreading).
Steve Ballmer going "($-$)....cha-ching....time to buy my whole extended family some sports cars!!!" But this is going to be overshadowed tomorrow by Black Ops 2. No matter what they say, a multi-plat release always has it's advantages. Then it can be Bobby Kotick going "cha-ching"
1 Like @mstrchf12 Ya, I know BO2 is going to sell more just because its playable on everything from the PC to the microwave, but I'm at least hoping Halo 4 will pull in at least 1/3 or at least a little more than BO2 does on the Xbox. I'm just tired of CoD and there bullshit, Halo 4 is one of the examples of how to do a sequel right.
1 Like @vault-boy @mstrchf12 Just remember - Black Ops 2 runs best on a microwave set on "defrost."
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- Publisher(s): Microsoft Game Studios
- Developer(s): 343 Industries
- Genre: Action
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