Halo 2: 4.75m gamertags

By Tom Bramwell Published 21 March, 2007

670 million games played.

If you were in any doubt about how much of Xbox Live's popularity is down to Bungie's legendary Halo 2, consider the following statistic: at the point of scrapping its old recording system recently, Bungie had logged 4.75 million gamertags, out of around six million Xbox Live subscribers.

The number of games played is now almost 670 million, with (in case you're interested) 4.5 billion slots filled across those games, suggesting that the mean Halo 2 game was contested by around seven players. (That also explains the confusing "4.5 billion played" stat we remarked on in November - they meant slots filled.)

In case you're (still) interested, that 670 million figure means that around 170 million games have been played since the start of June 2006, when Bungie revealed it had passed the big five-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh. It's the sort of success they will be hoping to repeat with Halo 3, due out on Xbox 360 later this year - and one of the reasons they have relaunched Bungie.net in prettified form this week.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 5 years ago

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  • Steve007 #1 5 years ago

    Ooh!

  • Carpathian #2 5 years ago

    I know these numbers pass over the heads of many, and that those who don't like Halo will find ways to knock them, but taken solely on the basis of being cold stats for a title these are pretty amazing stuff.

    Only so many can be put down to novelty or hype, with the large proportion remaining as a testement that they must have done something pretty right.

    Edited by 1 at 21/03/07 @ 09:11

  • Stormflood #3 5 years ago

    I'll take credit for a good number of those stats. But I can't help wondering how many of those are duplicate accounts from people cheating/modding. I had to stop playing Halo 2 due to the amount of f-tards ruining the experience.

  • stevencole7 #4 5 years ago

    What Do They Want..................A MEDAL!!! ???

  • Dreddnaught #5 5 years ago

    Six million subscribers ?

    I'm no Carol Vorderman, but at 40 quid a year, I make that 240 million quid Microsoft pulls in every year from live accounts alone.

    I'm a little pissed I need to pay for some downloads now.......

  • ArcMonkey #6 5 years ago

    Reporting this now would have nothing to do with Halo 2 and Live launching for PC soon, would it?

  • trevd72 #7 5 years ago

    i am a little pissed that i have been stopped playing it through the vga on my tv. you need to have it through scart 50hz to download the new stuff then it just failed......i have tried 4 times and still broken. i have read that once the downloads go through then I can go back to vga but i wouldn't know.

  • Skooch #8 5 years ago

    This is very impressive stuff and shows what Bungie have to live up to with Halo 3. The first Halo basically sold the Xbox, the second brought everyone to Live, but can Halo3 blend both the campaign and an awesome MP successfully? Roll on 'Fall 2007' I say...

    /waits for the first 'but I just don't get Halo' comment

  • Fatnick #9 5 years ago

    It would be impressive if it wasn't the same few thousand 'stand-byers' using endless trial cards to create new gamertags. ;)

  • GamesConnoisseur #10 5 years ago

    trevd72

    "i am a little pissed that i have been stopped playing it through the vga on my tv. you need to have it through scart 50hz to download the new stuff then it just failed......i have tried 4 times and still broken. i have read that once the downloads go through then I can go back to vga but i wouldn't know."

    Just go back to component or even scart to download and revert to vga after maps had been downloaded and it ll work fine, I have done it.

  • Xerx3s #11 5 years ago

    You really are a marvel of intelligence, aren't you?

  • Scythe #12 5 years ago

    That is very impressive for a console online game, MS definitely set the bar high with their online and particularily with Halo2.

    Although my one little "gripe" is this. Many people continually talk about how Halo3 is THE system seller and is going to make the 360 user base "explode" and obliterate anything the PS3 has to offer.. But considering the original XB sold 25mil, this is only 20% of that total.
    Now considering THAT, it would be relatively safe to conclude that the 5 million or so Halo2 online users are large XB fans and would therefore have purchased a 360 already (if not by the beginning of November then definitely by then end of December what with Gears being released). So perhaps this holy grail of the 360 coming this November is being a tad optimistic.
    Not to take anything from the game which I'm sure will sell immensly well, I'm thinking in term of the people who claim that Halo3 will sell x million consoles alone ... looking at the online numbers it would seem most of those x million would already have their 360.

  • Carrybagma #13 5 years ago

    Oh no, this sort of thing is boring, boring shit.

    Gimme the vehicle specs.
    What's the saga?