Halo: Reach is truly the biggest Halo- heck, one of the biggest games- of all time. Following the footsteps of the conclusion to the grand Halo trilogy, Halo 3, Halo: Reach has become the biggest entertainment launch of this year, overshadowing every other game, book, movie, anything in the vicinity (don’t know if that includes Linkin Park’s newest album, A Thousand Suns), since its release on the 14th of September. Not only that, Microsoft also confirmed that Halo: Reach earned them $200 million on the first day of its release.
“Halo: Reach is the biggest game Microsoft has ever released, and its launch has already surpassed every game, movie and entertainment launch this year,” said Phil Spencer, corporate vice president, Microsoft Game studios. “Every major instalment has grown in scope and popularity, firmly cementing the ‘Halo’ franchise as one of the most popular entertainment properties in the world over the past decade.”
Not only that, Halo: Reach sold 300,000 units on the first day in the UK, say newly released figures from UKIE/GfK-Chart Track, hinting at some unbreakable records being set in the future. These sales have already placed the megaton First Person Shooter at the tenth spot in the all-time best ever weekly sales for an individual title in the UK, and it isn’t as if the week is already over.
The Halo franchise has now shipped over 3.5 million copies in the UK, which means grossings of £109,068,532 in the region.
Michael Rawlinson, UKIE Director, said, “”This is excellent news for the video games and interactive entertainment industry, demonstrating how games sales continue to increase despite difficult economic circumstances.
“With one in every three people classifying themselves as gamers, and with over half of UK households containing at least one video games console, the UK video games market is in great shape for the future.”
UK Xbox boss, Stephen McGill said, “Demand for ‘Halo: Reach’ has been phenomenal across the world and the UK is no exception.
“As we saw on Monday night, thousands of Halo fans queued across the UK at more than 400 GAME and GameStation and we expect the game to keep flying off the shelves throughout the weekend.”
Halo: Reach has also reportedly broken all records of its predecessor, Halo 3 on Xbox Live, already having more unique online players than the latter ever did.
Halo: Reach is doing bloody well, and it deserves all the acclaim and success it is getting. We really loved the game. You can check our review out here.