Halo 3 scores $300 million in first-week sales

Bungie's latest not doing too badly at the end of Halo 3's first week on sale.

Xbox 360-exclusive Halo 3 made $170 million on its first day on sale in the US alone, and also broke Australian sales records according to figures released down under. Now Bungie has one more reason to celebrate, as week-one sales have clocked in at a rather reasonable $300 million worldwide.

Halo 3, which is the fastest-selling game ever, is being billed by Microsoft as "one of the most successful entertainment properties in history." The company released a statement saying that initial figures from retailers are also showing the Halo effect having an influence on console purchasing--Xbox 360 sales have more than doubled since the game's release.

Unsurprisingly, the game is also faring well on Xbox Live, with more than 2.7 million gamers having had a go online--over a third of the 7 million total registered Live users. Forty million hours of online games, which adds up to 4,500 years, have been played in the first week across the globe, with almost 30 million achievements unlocked.

653 Comments

  • night_haunter

    Posted Nov 13, 2008 4:36 pm PT

    HALO ALL THE WAY!!!!

  • vivigo360

    Posted Oct 14, 2008 6:05 pm PT

    HALO FOREVER AND EVER

  • KingChainz31684

    Posted Nov 9, 2007 11:35 am PT

    musashi i think COD should but whether or not it will i don't know the name Halo combined with xbox, automatically merits a 9 and a half no matter how the game is. I mean i like halo but at the same time i can name numerous reason why it doesn't deserve above a 9.0. I just think the lack of big battles that feel important meaning no tough battles and no boss battles then terrible human and flood AI though the covenant AI got better. i mean theres more but i suppose this isn't the place for them since it was a good game

  • babshai

    Posted Oct 9, 2007 5:26 pm PT

    All this talk about Halo 3 makes a brother want to go out and take a loan just to get a Premium 360!

  • sil_musashi

    Posted Oct 9, 2007 12:18 am PT

    I don't know why this game has a big score Compare to Gear of War. The graphic, gameplay and even battle field are worse than Gear of War. That's unfair. I bet Call of Duty 4 will beat Halo 3 for sure.

  • Dragonnmaster

    Posted Oct 8, 2007 1:43 pm PT

    i wish i had been working at Bungie or Microsoft.

  • REGAMER-X

    Posted Oct 8, 2007 9:01 am PT

    Everyone saw this was going to sell big, great job Bungie.

  • MoDollars

    Posted Oct 8, 2007 1:56 am PT

    that's very impressive, this is excellent !

  • sm00thpapa

    Posted Oct 7, 2007 7:46 pm PT

    Great game but the single player mode was over way to quick. I want more HALO. HALO 4?

  • The_Consequence

    Posted Oct 7, 2007 6:59 pm PT

    Not surprising. When Mountain Dew makes a drink for your game it's probably gonna be huge. I guess this will show developers that you don't have to make a good game, you just have to have a really cool main character.

  • d3f1anc3

    Posted Oct 7, 2007 1:03 pm PT

    The sales warrent the quality of the game. The graphics could of been better (character models specifically) but other then that I really can't find any complaints. I wasn't a Halo fan, never have been. I've played it a lot /w friends @ LANs... but after picking this one up (first franchise purchase) I can say I am now.

    The one thing I really would like back is my dual-wield Needlers

  • omrikk87

    Posted Oct 7, 2007 12:51 am PT

    halo 3 is a very good game , even though there are some flause , the MP is addictive as hell , 4 co-op online story is just an amazing idea by bungie\ms , some new weapons , shilds and stuff like that , gave a bit more depth to a game that was awesome overall before that... cant blame the sales

  • Great_Ragnarok

    Posted Oct 6, 2007 9:57 pm PT

    WOW!!

  • kungfuashe

    Posted Oct 6, 2007 8:14 pm PT

    awesome game i've already gone through the campaign three times and i love it except fot that horrible second to last mission...worse than the library on halo one. also the difficukty seems ramped up making heroic like legendary and legendary eben harder, especially if palying alone but co-op is a freaking blast. and i for one think the game looks amazing it does not have that ridiculous amount of detail like gears but just tje design and overall aesthetics of the game are outstanding it sets the same level as atmosphere as bioshock although obviously not the same type of mood. favorite mission is the covenant i love tyhe part where you fly the hornet and are battling the banshees and phantoms and craps blowing up left and right. congrats bungie i wouldn't be surprised to see this game hit one billion...they're even digging it in japan.

  • kickrocks420

    Posted Oct 6, 2007 3:53 pm PT

    If the game is doing this great then hurry up and make the freaking movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i gurantee everyone who bought halo 3 will go see the movie and it will set records across the board again

  • ddashboy242

    Posted Oct 6, 2007 1:49 pm PT

    HOLY S|-|!t ! Bungie ya doin a great job, thats alot of cake in one day. Halo..........if not the best game eva made one of em.

  • jimjam146

    Posted Oct 6, 2007 11:24 am PT

    This proves that the red rings was overblown. Why would all these people by a game for a system that isn't working?

  • Kfoss

    Posted Oct 6, 2007 10:35 am PT

    WOW...if they keep it up...then in a month they could make enough to pay for the extended wuarantee program!..master chief saves the day!...lol

  • amirkalloe

    Posted Oct 6, 2007 9:34 am PT

    W00t! That's a lot of money! Another prove that Halo 3 is one of the best games

  • emerald101

    Posted Oct 6, 2007 9:14 am PT

    OMD they even beat the first pokemon games..lol!!!!, and i also agree with Bloodhawk_DX.

  • Nawras

    Posted Oct 6, 2007 5:26 am PT

    That's a lot of money!

  • racerx737

    Posted Oct 6, 2007 12:08 am PT

    daaaaaaang, that's pretty awesome, congrats Bungie!!!!

  • ctg867

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 10:43 pm PT

    ZOMGZZZ!!

    No really, great for Halo, but still, I can't help but be disappointed with some things in Halo 3. Some things can be patched, like limitations on all the multiplayer stuff. But I was really disappointed with the story in Halo 3. The whole beginning of the game is cut out and instead thrown into some stupid comic book. If I don't get that in some form of free/cheap DLC, Bungie/MS just went down a notch in my book.

    I love Halo, but come on. That's just unacceptable. There is such little on the side of cutscenes, story work, and a real beginning to the game. I love the gameplay itself. Which is a huge step up from Halo 2, which had a great first half, and a crappy second half (with a great story through the whole thing). But Halo 3 has a solid campaign the whole way through, but the story is lacking in a lot of areas.

    Me = disappointed. Hopefully the Peter Jackson project has something to do with the books or the comics or something. That would make me feel a lot better about this whole situation.

  • Primenova

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 9:31 pm PT

    To EVERYONE below who is mentioing Call of Duty 4-- good or bad, that game isn't even out yet. Stop making claims one way or the other. Halo 3 is out, CoD4 isn't. So at the very least, Halo 3 is the best 360 multiplayer shooter out NOW.

  • ukillwegrill

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 4:16 pm PT

    Halo suck only joking best game currently out and way better then metal gear solid although thats good 2
    hopefullly bungie will make more ips so microsoft will have a reason to take it back to the white and green heaven

  • beeahillbilly

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 3:28 pm PT

    Wait... pokemon yellow is no longer the fastest selling game? D:

  • Evinco_DX

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 2:40 pm PT

    CoD 4 had a very good chance on beating out Halo 3 as THE multiplayer experience on Xbox 360. The developers of that game screwed it up BIG time, do to unballanced perks and nothing but pray and spray tactics. Halo 3 is a very well ballanced game, none of the weapons or deployable equipment out shines the other. Do to Halo 3 being ballanced, it's multiplayer is a phenomenal experience.

  • Homerj

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 2:12 pm PT

    "bungie just dumped micro$oft"

    No Bungie just got a huge reward and got spun off into a separate company with only a limited stake held by MS. The guys at Bungie just got a huge paycheck from MS...they got handed back their company for free (and a company worth orders of magnitude more because of the sucess at Halo). With Bungie being largely independent again..hope springs for a return to the Myth IP than many a long term gamer looks back at with great reverence.

  • Bloodhawk_DX

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 1:58 pm PT

    vortmos: I laughed when you called Halo 3 a pray and spray with no tactics and then mentioned CoD4 being better. Call of Duty 4 is the biggest pray and spray game I've ever played. It's even worse than the Tom Clancy games because unlike CoD4, Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon actually have weapon recoil and muzzle climb. In Call of Duty 4 it's very easy for one man to own the battlefield thanks to some very imbalanced perks and abilities that reward redundant players.

  • Redmarble

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 12:53 pm PT

    THREE HUNDRED MILLION--$#17! A great day to be a Halo fanboy!

  • NeoNavarro

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 11:02 am PT

    Wow... you know what I can do with $300m. Then again did you expect any less? Sales are only going to go up come this holiday at the end of December it could very well be at $420m.

  • InfinityMugen

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 10:16 am PT

    Thats good money. They should drop the prices of the games to sell even more copies.

  • brianpoetzel

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 10:15 am PT

    Well, I stand corrected. It looks like bungie and MS are splitting. But it looks like MS owns the halo brand not bungie?

  • rob3nelson

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 9:46 am PT

    What does Sony have that can compare to this? Are you telling me that MGS will do this well? I don't even think FFXIII will. Of course they will do well in Japan. But, that's about it. I think in the future that the PS3 will just be relegated to Japan, where it belongs.

  • PatLTornado

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 9:45 am PT

    Hmm Not bad. Seems like Halo 3 will increase demand for 360 and all indications are there is that The 360 WILL catch up to Wii in hardware sales this holiday season and that's a bitter pill all Nintendo fanboys will have to swallow.

    I still think Sony can pull it off with PS3, but if Sega launches another console next year, then PS3's chances of making it will be dashed.

  • gizmo_logix

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 9:09 am PT

    Check the price of Halo 3. Then, the sales number will make sense.

    Spin 101

  • enoslives7

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 9:04 am PT

    bungie just dumped micro$oft

  • CodyTG

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 8:55 am PT

    @ lhardwick692 Graphics have improved over all the Halo series. Play the game and you will notice it. Screens don't do the game justice.

    And since when do graphics mean everything? Halo 3's graphics AREN'T as good as say.. Gears, but they are still good.

    This game sells because it is fun. If the game wasn't fun, noone would play it or buy.

    Bottom line: Halo 3 is a very fun addicting FPS.

  • Delongman

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 8:51 am PT

    Just got it! All i need to do is get my sister and her friends off the Wii!!!! More records will follow. It's the greatest game ever... It's like some irresistable influence. Peeps say it could have done more... I say play and forget the technical stuff!! Go have a blast online!

  • vortmos

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 8:31 am PT

    andpolack... I bought the game for the complete experience, not just single player. I did play some multiplayer but it was nothing but a boring spray fest with no tactics. CoD4 multiplayer was better in every single way. Please don't think I'm some Halo or 360 hater because i did like the original Halo back in the day. I guess the good thing is that the hype will sell more 360s but lets hope most buyers aren't as disappointed with the game as was.

  • SopranosFan

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 8:27 am PT

    I would go on a good news article about PS3 and talk about how bad the PS3 is but I can't seem to find any good news articles about it right now.

  • Hughbert171

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 8:02 am PT

    Yes, you might have to spend more money on Halo 3 than you would on a book or a movie ticket but you also have to have a $400 system. There are only a little more than 10 million 360's sold. That makes it much less than the amount of people who could read or go to the movies. The higher price tag helps to make up for the much smaller market it is being made for.

  • jimjam146

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 7:57 am PT

    I think the rumours that have been flying around are a symptom of Sony's desperation. Bungie leaving Microsoft would free them up to make a game for Sony which would help level the playing field. What's the next best thing to having a good game lineup? Spreading a bunch of rumours that you might eventually have good games.

  • Homerj

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 7:50 am PT

    And to those laughable Bungie rumors:
    Bungie is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. Bungie was orinally the acclaimed dev of the Myth series, a tactical real time strategy PC series as well as the much neglected FPS Marathon. Halo was originally conceived as a sort of combination of Myth gameplay and Marathon storyline (the game Halo Wars is the current gen version of this original design...coming soon woo hoo). MS bought out the studio for a first party xbox dev, and the Halo that we know was born. As the US is a constitutional democracy with a good deal of personal freedoms, the employees of Bungie are free to leave at any time. However, as the Bungie company and its IPs are the property of MS....those may not leave unless MS chooses to sell those assets. Bungie cannot leave Microsoft, and any departing employees of that company cannot take any IPs, including Halo, with them....pretty simple really.

  • Homerj

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 7:41 am PT

    "--now lets see if the 360 is going to be able to support itself on other games than one in a blue moon-or will sony's lineup getting bigger and bigger start causing problems in microsofts direction--"

    Though the language in this post was a little umm..garbled, I think the gist of this is one of the other SFB talking points..."360's got nothing after Halo3" I would counter that with PGR4, Orange Box, Blacksite, Mass Effect...all releasing in 07 after Halo 3, and all will have solid sales.
    Then we have mulitplat Jerico and Assassins Creed, which by install base and attach rates alone, will sell 3 to 5 times as many copies on the 360 (I wont comment on quality, as the finished versions have not yet been compared as Madden 08 etc). MS does not need a blockbuster every year for the 360 to continue growth in the marketplace (although historically we have GeOW in fall 06 and Halo 3 in fall 07....one blockbuster a year so far). Console market share will not be determined by one or two titles, its the consistent library of titles thats important.

    And lest we not forget that Fable 2 and the multiplat Fallout 3 will be coming in the neighborhood of fall 08...I think those might sell more than a couple of copies.

  • SoulmoanIsmyGT

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 7:22 am PT

    Bungie. Can't. Leave. Microsoft. Period.

    By the way, theres a backwards compatability list. Maybe you should look for it before asking questions.

  • manicmantra

    Posted Oct 5, 2007 7:21 am PT

    I like Halo, think it's a great console fps, but let's put things in perspective. Harry Potter books were $35. Spider Man 3 tickets are relative to movie theaters ($7 where I went). If you get Halo 3, you're going to spend at least $60. I bought the Limited edition. That's $70. The Legendary edition is $130. It's a hell of a lot easier to make that much money when your product is so expensive. Still, this is great for the industry as far as mass appeal influence goes.

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