"Halo Infinite" is now the largest launch in the franchise's history by player count, beating out all other previous installments.
Photo taken from Halo Infinite Steam page
GameSpot reports that "Infinite" has now surpassed an insane 20 million players, even if it has only been out for almost two months. As a result, developer 343 Industries posted on the official "Halo" Twitter account to celebrate the milestone:
With over 20 million Spartans joining us so far, we’re thrilled to announce that #HaloInfinite is the biggest launch in Halo franchise history!
Thank you, everyone, for joining us on the next step in this great journey. pic.twitter.com/d4EIsvWYVr— Halo (@Halo) January 25, 2022
"Infinite" launched last December to raving reviews from both critics and fans, who were praising the game for its story and single-player/multiplayer gameplay. Metacritic gave it a Metascore of 80 based on 30 critic reviews (7.0 user score based on 885 individual ratings), calling it a "return to form" for the franchise.
Microsoft, however, didn't share exact sales numbers for "Infinite." But perhaps that's mainly due to the game being available on Xbox Game Pass, which GamesRadar argues is a major driver for its success.
Anyone subscribed to Game Pass had access to "Infinite" from Day One, which opened up the game to far more players than expected. There's also the case of the game's free-to-play multiplayer, which opened up even more audiences to the preeminent Xbox franchise as a whole.
Reviews of the multiplayer mode, in particular, were quite stellar. IGN gave the mode a 9 out of 10 score, praising it for its handling of both long-time "Halo" fans and franchise newcomers. Here is their review video:
"Infinite" joins "Forza Horizon 5" as Microsoft and Xbox's biggest money-makers for the current generation. But with more content promised such as the fan-favorite Forge mode and Campaign Co-Op mode, the newest "Halo" installment could potentially pull even more new players into its fold.
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'Halo Infinite's' Success: A Result Of Xbox's Record-Breaking 2021
From its beginnings in the bowels of Microsoft, Xbox has surely gone a long way with 2021 proving to be among its biggest years yet in terms of overall revenue.
During their latest Q2 2022 earnings report, the company revealed that they earned an insane $16.28 billion in revenue, which makes it Xbox's all-time best performance within a calendar year, writes ShackNews. This beat 2020's previous record high, and it looks like there's a lot more excellent things to come for the brand within the next several years.
LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 13: The new Microsoft Xbox One S console is announced during the Microsoft Xbox news conference at the E3 Gaming Conference on June 13, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. The One S is slated to launch in August.
Game Pass proved to be among the most important parts of Microsoft's business, alongside first-party game sales. There was a slight decline in the sales of third-party games, reports GameSpot, but that didn't make much of a dent in the overall revenue figures.
Confidence is riding high with Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of embattled developer/publisher Activision Blizzard, whose plethora of big-name game franchises like "Call Of Duty" could further boost Xbox's business far ahead of competitors like Sony and Nintendo.
All in all, it seems like Xbox's success will keep on going, further bringing its brand to new heights within the gaming industry.
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Written by RJ Pierce
