Considered to be one of the bestselling video game franchises in history, Microsoft’s Halo has sold over a record breaking 50 million games since it debuted with 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved. Consequently, players have spent more than five billion hours playing Halo on X-Box Live.
On November 6th of this year, Halo 4 flew off of store shelves and out of Internet warehouses with four million units selling in 24 hours. Halo 4 earned $220 million in revenue in this time frame and went on to generate $300 million in its first week. In all, there have been eight Halo games from Microsoft to date, all of which have been first-person shooters, with the exception of 2009’s strategy game Halo Wars. These include Halo: Combat Evolved (2001,) Halo 2 (2004,) Halo 3 (2007,) Halo Wars (March 2009,) Halo 3: ODST (September 2009,) Halo: Reach (September 2010,) Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (2011,) and Halo 4 (2012.)
Bungie Studios created the Halo series, though the company has since moved on to an all-new franchise to be published by Activision. Microsoft’s new 343 Industries label is now responsible for all things Halo and is currently working on at least, Halo 5 and Halo 6.
In addition to revealing lifetime sales figures for the Halo series, Microsoft today announced a new free-to-enter Halo 4 tournament. The Halo 4 Infinity Challenge begins December 17 and tasks players will competing on global leaderboards across the game’s War Games and Spartan Ops modes for a chance to win prizes. Players can register for the Halo 4 Infinity Challenge today through the promotion’s website.
The tournament is powered by Virgin Gaming, and its grand prize is a UNSC-themed V8-powered 2013 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor truck designed by 343 Industries. The winner of the Spartan Ops tournament will be awarded an appearance in a future Halo game. For full details on the Halo 4 Infinity Challenge, check out the tournament’s website.
Source: gamespot