Halo 3 passes $300 million mark in sales @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on October 04, 2007

News: And it's a system seller as well.

The Halo 3 sales train keeps on rolling as Microsoft has announced the first Xbox 360 entry in the Halo series has surpassed $300 million in worldwide sales during its first week.

Microsoft also announced that sales of the Xbox 360 console more than doubled during Halo 3's first week on store shelves. The company has released a smattering of statistics that details the Halo 3 phenomenom:

More than 2.7 million gamers played "Halo 3" on Xbox Live in the first week

Within the first day of its launch, "Halo 3" players worldwide racked up more than 3.6 million hours of online gameplay.

By the end of the first week, that number increased to 40 million hours (representing more than 4,500 years of continuous gameplay).

Since the launch, gamers have unlocked nearly 30 million Achievements.

Another number Microsoft didn't talk about was that the $300 million in sales means that 3.5 to 4 million copies of Halo 3 were sold in the first week. For comparison's sake, Halo 2 has sold between 8 and 10 million copies since its release in 2004.

"'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."

We'll have more on Halo 3 soon.