Halo 3 Sells $300 Million Worldwide in First Week

October 04, 2007 | By: James Brightman

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Master Chief has hit another milestone, as Microsoft proudly declared today that Halo 3 reached over $300 million in sales during its first week. The blockbuster success has also had an impact on Xbox 360 console sales, Microsoft said.

After hitting $170 million in sales in its first 24 hours, Halo 3's early success foretold of a week-long wait for the seven-day result. Today, Microsoft announced that since the Tuesday, September 25 release, it has surpassed $300 million in sales thus making it one of the most successful entertainment launches in history.

The company also claims that "initial reports from retailers worldwide" indicate that Xbox 360 console sales have nearly tripled compared to the weekly sales average for the hardware prior to the launch of Halo 3. The increasing installed base and continued buzz around Master Chief's latest outing should also help sell upcoming Xbox 360 games like Mass Effect and Rock Band.

"Halo is truly a cultural phenomenon, and the launch of Halo 3 is an important milestone for Xbox 360 and for video games as entertainment and as an art form," said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. "Halo 3 embodies our vision for the future of entertainment, where some of the world's greatest creative minds will deliver a new generation of interactive storytelling."

Even though first-week sales are now in, Microsoft still has yet to provide a units total for the game. The game had 1.7 million pre-orders leading up to launch, and we estimated that around 2.34 million copies were sold on day one. Naturally, at this point the unit total is significantly higher now.

Because the multiplayer component has always been such a huge part of the Halo experience, the launch of Halo 3 also made an impact on Xbox Live. Microsoft said that over 2.7 million gamers (nearly a third of the 7 million Xbox Live members) played the game on Xbox Live in the first week, and within the first day of its launch, Halo 3 players worldwide totaled more than 3.6 million hours of online gameplay; that figure then increased more than elevenfold to 40 million hours by the end of the first week, for a total of over 4,500 years of continuous gameplay.

In addition, since the game's launch gamers have unlocked nearly 30 million achievements. Halo 3 also reportedly "drove a record number of Xbox Live Gold Memberships as hundreds of thousands of new members gathered online with friends, family members and other gamers around the world to collectively compete and complete the game."

As the holiday shopping season progresses these numbers will no doubt continue to impress even more. It'll be interesting to see what the ultimate effect is on Xbox 360 hardware adoption.