How can Halo 5 be the most popular game since 3?

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Hello everybody!

As many are well aware by now Bravo has come out and said that Halo 5’s daily active users is the highest its been since Halo 3. Here is the statement.

“I do believe you’d be very pleasantly surprised with not only the number of players who jumped on during the free play period (holy moly lots! by golly it worked!), but also the amount of Halo 5 players each day and month - this isn’t something we’ve talked about yet, but I am rather happy to share that even before the free play period, Halo 5 has had the highest monthly active players for a Halo title since Halo 3.
Also exciting (and not yet discussed, either) is the increase that H5 has seen in players each month over the past few months (we just got done looking at June numbers, which are once again higher than the previous month). As you can imagine this is pretty darn exciting to see, and this thread seemed like an appropriate place to share this news for the first time :slight_smile:
I’d have to get approval from the powers that be to say more in terms of specifics, but you should rest assured that together, we’re quite a strong army.”

Now I don’t think Bravo’s lying, not at all. But I am curious as to how we got these numbers.

Firstly this does not mean Halo 5’s populations are anything close to that of Halo 3’s. Halo 3 was at the top of the xbox live charts for 2 years straight, only to be dethroned by Modern Warfare 2 in 2009. So I think there may be some people thinking that Halo 5 is rivaling Halo 3 for player activity, which isnt the case at all.

Essentially this statement just means its more popular than Halo Reach and Halo 4.

But even still I’m curious how that’s even the case.

For instance Halo Reach was on a much more popular platform in the Xbox 360. It was a follow up to Halo 3, (the most popular Halo game of all time). And though it clearly didnt resonate as strongly as past entries, it still sat in the top 3 for a very long time.

Even over a year after launch it found itself at number 6 on the charts. https://majornelson.com/2011/11/02/live-activity-for-week-of-october-24th/ A spot Halo 5 has recently reached with the help of the free weekend.

And like I said I think hes telling the truth. And a spot on an activity chart has nothing to do with exact populations and there’s wiggle room there.

But I’m just curious as to how you can come to a conclusion that Halo 5 had a higher active user account than Reach.

Did you take a snapshot of Halo 5’s active users 7 months after launch and compare it to Reach’s active users 7 months after launch? I’m just curious how the numbers are factored.

Because I find it a little bit of an anomaly that a game that sat significantly higher on the active player charts on a much larger and popular platform (xbox 360), could somehow have a lower population than Halo 5, a game that has frequently struggled to stay in the top 10.

Looking forward to a response! Again hoping its true. I no doubt think Halo’s growing, and being involved in the community I can definitely feel our spirits rising!

But there’s just some circumstantial evidence here that’s throwing me off and I think it’d be great if we could confirm how the numbers were arrived at!

Thank you! Good job as of late!

2

I remember when the Xbox store had the “Most Played” around the time Battlefront launched. Now, even though Halo 5 doesn’t have a population counter, Battlefront did online. I remember checking it one day when Halo 5 was ahead of Battlefront on the list. Battlefront had more 45,000 online on the xbox one. Now if the list is accurate, that means Halo 5 had a higher population then that. But this was awhile ago. Just food for thought.

3

H5 free content update was is pretty much my only given evidence also i had just as much fun in h3 with friends as much i do no in h5

4

Favyn :smiley:

Yeah, I am a little confused by this too, 'cause Reach was still holding a solid 100k a year after launch (if my memory serves me well), and according to Halotracker Halo 5 has been struggling to hit 30-40k players at peak times.

5

You either take it or leave it, it’s not hard for companies to just say stuff just for the fun of it and many people would be skeptical even if it were true.

6

I doubt they see the 100+k 24hour-UUs Reach had in 2011. Until they release numbers were looking at another vague claim by members of 343. We see things on neo, reddit etc and they are all vague and without numbers to back their claim.

Halo 5 has had the highest monthly active players for a Halo title since Halo 3

What does this mean? Active players? Are all players not “active”? Theres so many qualifiers on this one its hard to gauge whats going on here.

7

The fact that Halo is selling a game about every 3 years, the first impression makes the game popular but Halo 5 failed it.

8

> 2533274980224085;4:
> Favyn :smiley:
>
> Yeah, I am a little confused by this too, 'cause Reach was still holding a solid 100k a year after launch (if my memory serves me well), and according to Halotracker Halo 5 has been struggling to hit 30-40k players at peak times.

Peak players? Daily total, weekly total, monthly total? because if thats a daily total a Peak of 40K could easily generate a total over 100K.

Given the wording in the quote Bravo is saying that Halo 5 has the more unique players per month then Halo Reach or Halo 4. Which is impressive sense those games both sold around 9 Million units and Halo 5 is estimated to have sold around 5 Million. That would mean that Halo 5 must have a great retention rate.

9

> 2533274808669104;6:
> I doubt they see the 100+k 24hour-UUs Reach had in 2011. Until they release numbers were looking at another vague claim by members of 343. We see things on neo, reddit etc and they are all vague and without numbers to back their claim.
>
> Halo 5 has had the highest monthly active players for a Halo title since Halo 3
>
> What does this mean? Active players? Are all players not “active”? Theres so many qualifiers on this one its hard to gauge whats going on here.

Active players are players that are currently on Halo 5, this doesn’t count players that have 5 but aren’t playing it.

As for how can it have more players if its lower in the list. It might be that 1 and 2 2011 had a much larger share than 1 and 2 2016.

10

> 2533274808669104;6:
> I doubt they see the 100+k 24hour-UUs Reach had in 2011. Until they release numbers were looking at another vague claim by members of 343. We see things on neo, reddit etc and they are all vague and without numbers to back their claim.
>
> Halo 5 has had the highest monthly active players for a Halo title since Halo 3
>
> What does this mean? Active players? Are all players not “active”? Theres so many qualifiers on this one its hard to gauge whats going on here.

Month active hear would mean they played the game at least once within the month in question. So according to this Halo 5 has the more unique players then Halo Reach or 4 did 8 months in.

11

> 2533274826317859;9:
> > 2533274808669104;6:
> > I doubt they see the 100+k 24hour-UUs Reach had in 2011. Until they release numbers were looking at another vague claim by members of 343. We see things on neo, reddit etc and they are all vague and without numbers to back their claim.
> >
> > Halo 5 has had the highest monthly active players for a Halo title since Halo 3
> >
> > What does this mean? Active players? Are all players not “active”? Theres so many qualifiers on this one its hard to gauge whats going on here.
>
>
> Active players are players that are currently on Halo 5, this doesn’t count players that have 5 but aren’t playing it.
>
> As for how can it have more players if its lower in the list. It might be that 1 and 2 2011 had a much larger share than 1 and 2 2016.

Or there could be more total players, more people playing multiple games, there are really lots of possible explanations.

12

I think it’s the updates and their frequency. They create constant spikes in the population that 343i might have slightly abused in their calculations to compare to other Halo games.

13

> 2533274844984484;11:
> > 2533274826317859;9:
> > > 2533274808669104;6:
> > > I doubt they see the 100+k 24hour-UUs Reach had in 2011. Until they release numbers were looking at another vague claim by members of 343. We see things on neo, reddit etc and they are all vague and without numbers to back their claim.
> > >
> > > Halo 5 has had the highest monthly active players for a Halo title since Halo 3
> > >
> > > What does this mean? Active players? Are all players not “active”? Theres so many qualifiers on this one its hard to gauge whats going on here.
> >
> >
> > Active players are players that are currently on Halo 5, this doesn’t count players that have 5 but aren’t playing it.
> >
> > As for how can it have more players if its lower in the list. It might be that 1 and 2 2011 had a much larger share than 1 and 2 2016.
>
>
> Or there could be more total players, more people playing multiple games, there are really lots of possible explanations.

Probably a mix of the two. If i remember right 2011 was Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2, which pretty much slaughtered every other game.

14

> 2533274846978810;12:
> I think it’s the updates and their frequency. They create constant spikes in the population that 343i might have slightly abused in their calculations to compare to other Halo games.

How is it abused? A monthly count is a monthly count. If the constant updates keep the monthly count high then mission accomplished.

15

> 2533274844984484;14:
> > 2533274846978810;12:
> > I think it’s the updates and their frequency. They create constant spikes in the population that 343i might have slightly abused in their calculations to compare to other Halo games.
>
>
> How is it abused? A monthly count is a monthly count. If the constant updates keep the monthly count high then mission accomplished.

I don’t know. But it is a bit fishy that Halo 5 is supposedly more popular than Reach when it’s so significantly and consistantly lower on the charts and on a platform with a much smaller playerbase.

Could be that 343i are factoring the number of available players on the platform into the equation, which would be fair, but I just don’t see how Halo 5 could possibly have a larger population than Reach did (more copies were sold, more players were playing- and that’s just by looking at statistics). If 343i would have given some evidence with that statement, just a number, than maybe it would be easier to swallow. As is, it’s hard not to believe that 343i carefully picked their words with this statement and that the truth isn’t exactly what appears at face value.

We HAVE previously heard Halo 5 has the best player retention since 3, which is 100% believable. It is a game that enspires loyalty in its players, unlike (say) Halo 4.

16

I’m going to make a more well-tought out response later cause I’m on my phone and posting on your phone sucks. BUT I just want to say I respect you for writing a well thought out, respectful, and logical post that didn’t resort to flaming, whining, or disrespect while trying to get gour point across. I wish more posters here would follow your example. I’d buy you a beer if I could.

17

I don’t know what to think of this, he could be telling the truth. But he cold also be lying to make the game sound better. But regardless if hes lying or not it’s good to get some bit of news from 343.

Edit: Also your a marine now, you can link so use your link powers.

18

> 2533274879407634;17:
> I don’t know what to think of this, he could be telling the truth. But he cold also be lying to make the game sound better. But regardless if hes lying or not it’s good to get some bit of news from 343.
>
> Edit: Also your a marine now, you can link so use your link powers.

Fixed it!

I’m so used to sites automatically doing it, my bad.

19

> 2533274810305245;1:
> Hello everybody!
>
> As many are well aware by now Bravo has come out and said that Halo 5’s daily active users is the highest its been since Halo 3. Here is the statement.
>
> “I do believe you’d be very pleasantly surprised with not only the number of players who jumped on during the free play period (holy moly lots! by golly it worked!), but also the amount of Halo 5 players each day and month - this isn’t something we’ve talked about yet, but I am rather happy to share that even before the free play period, Halo 5 has had the highest monthly active players for a Halo title since Halo 3.
> Also exciting (and not yet discussed, either) is the increase that H5 has seen in players each month over the past few months (we just got done looking at June numbers, which are once again higher than the previous month). As you can imagine this is pretty darn exciting to see, and this thread seemed like an appropriate place to share this news for the first time :slight_smile:
> I’d have to get approval from the powers that be to say more in terms of specifics, but you should rest assured that together, we’re quite a strong army.”
>
> Now I don’t think Bravo’s lying, not at all. But I am curious as to how we got these numbers.
>
> Firstly this does not mean Halo 5’s populations are anything close to that of Halo 3’s. Halo 3 was at the top of the xbox live charts for 2 years straight, only to be dethroned by Modern Warfare 2 in 2009. So I think there may be some people thinking that Halo 5 is rivaling Halo 3 for player activity, which isnt the case at all.
>
> Essentially this statement just means its more popular than Halo Reach and Halo 4.
>
> But even still I’m curious how that’s even the case.
>
> For instance Halo Reach was on a much more popular platform in the Xbox 360. It was a follow up to Halo 3, (the most popular Halo game of all time). And though it clearly didnt resonate as strongly as past entries, it still sat in the top 3 for a very long time.
>
> Even over a year after launch it found itself at number 6 on the charts. https://majornelson.com/2011/11/02/live-activity-for-week-of-october-24th/ A spot Halo 5 has recently reached with the help of the free weekend.
>
> And like I said I think hes telling the truth. And a spot on an activity chart has nothing to do with exact populations and there’s wiggle room there.
>
> But I’m just curious as to how you can come to a conclusion that Halo 5 had a higher active user account than Reach.
>
> Did you take a snapshot of Halo 5’s active users 7 months after launch and compare it to Reach’s active users 7 months after launch? I’m just curious how the numbers are factored.
>
> Because I find it a little bit of an anomaly that a game that sat significantly higher on the active player charts on a much larger and popular platform (xbox 360), could somehow have a lower population than Halo 5, a game that has frequently struggled to stay in the top 10.
>
> Looking forward to a response! Again hoping its true. I no doubt think Halo’s growing, and being involved in the community I can definitely feel our spirits rising!
>
> But there’s just some circumstantial evidence here that’s throwing me off and I think it’d be great if we could confirm how the numbers were arrived at!
>
> Thank you! Good job as of late!

Fav,

whats your our opinion on how bravo came to such a conclusion?

The only way I can see their numbers working is if it’s simply a total of all unique users for a set month, I’d imagine they’re using the updates as mini population boosts, that people will try out and leave. I’m going to find the August numbers very interesting… If we ever get to see them.

Thoughts?

20

> 2533274886531207;16:
> I’m going to make a more well-tought out response later cause I’m on my phone and posting on your phone sucks. BUT I just want to say I respect you for writing a well thought out, respectful, and logical post that didn’t resort to flaming, whining, or disrespect while trying to get gour point across. I wish more posters here would follow your example. I’d buy you a beer if I could.

Image posting on an iPad. At least there’s wifi at the beach ;)!