You might have noticed that Microsoft has been tight-lipped about Halo 5: Guardians sales since its launch nearly a week ago, something uncharacteristic of the company when compared to past releases in the franchise. If the game's sales in the UK are any indication, there's a good reason for this.
The UK sales chart for the last week of sales have Halo 5 at the top spot signaling an important victory over other best-selling software such as Assassin's Creed Syndicate and WWE 2K16. While this may seem to be reason for celebration, its sales numbers are surprisingly low when compared to past Halo games.
Here are the sales for every prior Halo game along with what Halo 5 has accumulated within the same amount of time:
- Halo: Combat Evolved – Sales Unknown
- Halo 2 – 260,000
- Halo 3 – 370,000
- Halo 3: ODST – 212,000
- Halo: Reach – 390,000
- Halo 4 – 332,000
- Halo: The Master Chief Collection – 105,000~
- Halo 5: Guardians – 150,000
Unfortunately for Microsoft, this means that Halo 5 is the least-selling main Halo game in the franchise.
The reason for a drop-off significant enough to put it behind Halo 3: ODST comes down to multiple factors. For one, Halo's reputation has been on shaky ground since Bungie departed in 2007. In addition to this, last year's Halo: The Master Chief Collection's frustration-rich experience left a bad taste in the mouth of many fans. For those who were waiting around for reviews, a mixture of extremely positive and not-so-alluring mixed reviews resulted in the lowest Metacritic score that a numbered title in the franchise has seen, likely preventing a few sales in the process.
There are some other factors to take into consideration, such as the growing popularity of digital sales—which probably would only increase the figure by around 20 to 30% anyway—and the fact that these sales only account for one market.
There is a large population of gamers that are heavily invested in Halo 5's multiplayer right now, which has delivered both compelling competitive play through Arena and casual enjoyment via Warzone. To these people the sales and reviews really don't mater. However, the big picture is that this potential decrease in popularity points toward the once FPS juggernaut showing signs of mortality.
