Halo 3 rakes in more than $300 million

Redmond (WA) – Halo 3 proves to be the cash cow Microsoft has claimed it to be. The game brought in $300 million in game sales within one week, and apparently contributed to doubling Xbox 360 console sales.

Microsoft said that Halo 3 has become the “fastest-selling video game ever” and already has its place among the world’s most successful entertainment products, at least from a revenue perspective. Microsoft did not say how many Halo 3 boxes were actually sold ; estimates however put the game at about 4.5 to 5 million units within the first week.

In comparison, Halo 2, launched on November 9, 2004, sold about 6.4 million copies within its first two months of launch.

The company also said that more than 2.7 million gamers played Halo 3 on the Xbox Live network during the first week within launch, almost one third of the currently registered 7 million Xbox Live gamers. More than 40 million hours of Halo 3 game play were logged on the Xbox Live server in the first week. And apparently, the Xbox console itself also got the boost Microsoft had hoped for. “Initial reports from retailers worldwide show console sales have more than doubled compared with the weekly average before the launch of Halo 3,” the company said.

Halo 3 was released in 37 countries and 17 languages. To date, more than 20 million copies of the games in the Halo trilogy have been sold worldwide, Microsoft noted.