The Halo franchise could easily be considered one the defining game series for Microsoft’s Xbox consoles, going all the way back to the first game that was released on the original Xbox system nearly 14 years ago, and the recent launch of Halo 5: Guardians proves that the Halo name still carries plenty of weight with console gamers.

“One week after launching worldwide, Halo 5: Guardians has made history as the biggest Halo launch and fastest-selling Xbox One exclusive game to-date, with more than $400 million in global sales of Halo 5: Guardians games and hardware, pushing the franchise to over $5 billion lifetime,” Xbox said on its official blog. “With the highest week one attach rate for a Microsoft first party title on Xbox One, the game was the most played of any game on Xbox One, as well as the most played on Xbox Live.”

According to Xbox, fans have already played over 21 million hours of Halo 5, and over 330,000 people tuned in to the livestream of the game’s launch.

“The success of Halo 5: Guardians is a testament to the innovative work from the entire team at 343 Industries to bring this installment to Xbox One and the incredible community of fans who have come to love the story, characters and gameplay central to the franchise,” said Xbox head Phil Spencer. “The game represents all the possibilities of Xbox One and has earned its place as the anchor title in the greatest holiday games lineup in Xbox history.”

Not quite perfect

While the game is already an big success, it has not been without its critics, who have been especially vocal about one conspicuously absent game feature: local multiplayer.

Playing Halo on a couch with friends is a fond memory for thousands of gamers, but the latest game in the series does not support split screen multiplayer, instead requiring friends to connect through online servers if they want to play with one another.

A major reason for this omission is technical, as split-screen multiplayer is heavily taxing on game systems, requiring twice the amount of data to be rendered on screen. Often a trade-off has to be made, sacrificing graphical fidelity to allow more than one person to play on the same screen.

Image courtesy of Xbox