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7 stunning stats for Halo’s 20th anniversary

Master Chief’s biggest accolades over the last two decades.

by Robin Bea
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
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The original Xbox launched 20 years ago on November 15, 2001. Of all the day one launch titles, there’s one game that became synonymous with the console itself.

Halo: Combat Evolved redefined first-person shooters

It’s still praised as one of the best games ever made.

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343 Industries

Ahead of its anniversary — and the upcoming release of Halo Infinite — let’s reflect on stats from the last 20 years of Halo.

81 million+

copies sold

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343 Industries

More than half of the people who bought Xbox consoles at launch also bought Halo within two months. 4 million copies were sold by the time Halo 2 was released.

$6 billion

in product sales

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Microsoft

That figure includes merchandise, and there is a LOT of merch.

1,000+

media and industry awards

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343 Industries

The original Halo alone garnered dozens of awards for everything from its soundtrack to its multiplayer mode.

100+

Game of the Year awards

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343 Industries

It also received numerous Game of the Decade awards, not to mention ongoing respect as one of the greatest games ever made.

30+

novels and live-action adaptations

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The first tie-in novel, The Fall of Reach, was actually released two weeks before Halo: Combat Evolved.

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A new live-action series is set to premiere on Paramount+ in 2022.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection compiles the first six games in the series. The trip down memory lane took off after a rocky launch, but even that collection boasts some wild stats.

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3 million+

launch week players

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343 Industries

Halo: The Master Chief Collection had two launches several years apart, arriving on Xbox One in 2014 and PC in 2019.

41 million+

hours played on PC in 2020

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Even with Halo Infinite on the horizon, The Master Chief Collection is still getting updates for nostalgic players looking to revisit the series’ early days.

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Microsoft

Halo will share the spotlight with other announcements at Xbox’s 20th-anniversary livestream on November 15. You can watch on the Xbox YouTube or Twitch channels.