Halo 2 beats off Gears

By Tom Bramwell Published 12 November, 2006

Still number one on Live.

Gears of War is now the most popular Xbox 360 game played on Xbox Live, but there are still more people playing Halo 2 overall.

That's according to the latest top-ten lists for Xbox Live activity released by the service's director of programming Larry Hryb - or Major Nelson to you and I.

They reveal that Gears has leapfrogged the likes of Call of Duty 2 and Splinter Cell: Double Agent to the top of the Xbox 360 chart, but Hryb adds that if the list were combined with the original-Xbox list, then "Halo 2 would be the top Xbox Live title, followed by Xbox 360 titles".

It'll be interesting to see how much impact Gears' European release on 17th November has on the table. So far Halo 2 has beaten off all attempts to unseat it. Can Gears do it? Can it? We will let you know. Hold onto your Internets.

Meanwhile, this week's Live Arcade release, Contra, sits on top of that table followed by UNO and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, despite being really quite rubbish.

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 (30) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • patchbox360 #1 5 years ago


    Street Fighter should be No. 1

    Gears could takeover Halo 2 eventually, then Lost Planet could take both over, then Halo 3 could regain its online crown - either way online on 360 will be sick in 2007
    Edited by 1 at 12/11/06 @ 10:03

  • Oasis #2 5 years ago

    TEH UNSTOPPABLE!!!111!!!LOLone!!!11

  • Steroyd #3 5 years ago

    When I first read that it sounded sooo wrong.

  • bdc #4 5 years ago

    lol Steroyd, I was thinking the exact same thing.

  • sharpfish #5 5 years ago

    and in other news, apparently Half Life ONE is beating GOW also (Xbox 1 doesn't = Xbox 2; apples to oranges).

    This time next year I'm sure 360 will be ahead of it's last version.
    Edited by 1 at 12/11/06 @ 10:02

  • dredd97 #6 5 years ago

    talking of Gears of War, I see Bravo are showing a Gamer TV special about it today at 12.00...

  • Der_tolle_Emil #7 5 years ago

    Since Gears of War isn't really released in Europe yet, isn't this a bit of a wobbly comparison? There must be a lot more Halo 2 owners out there than Gears of War owners.

    Funny thing though, I bought Halo and Halo 2 yesterday. I never played those titles and the Halo 3 coverage on the 1up show really got me interested in the last couple of weeks. And with 10€ each I think it was a wise decision.

  • Blanchy #8 5 years ago

    How is this news?

    The most popular game on Xbox Live is more popular than a game that hasn't even been released in Europe yet.

  • nickthegun #9 5 years ago

    Fnar....Halo 2 beats off gears....gears then had a fag, farted and went to sleep.

  • Xerx3s #10 5 years ago

    Let's run this story again if/when GoW passes 7 million units (impossible considering the 360 amount).

  • Mordum #11 5 years ago

    This is getting ridiculous. Who at Eurogamer makes the decisions on what articles to run or not? Whoever it is needs to be given his/her weeks notice, they clearly can't differentiate a news worthy story from complete drivel.

  • Max_Powers #12 5 years ago

    6 words:

    Ranked team-based matches with friends

    Like Penny Arcade wisely says:

    Epic is bringing this game to a next-generation system whose number one multiplayer game is still Halo 2, running in emulation - put succinctly, we should be starting at what they accomplished two years ago, and moving forward. The ability to create a group and then pit said group against other groups online is a Goddamn bedrock assertion.

  • Stormflood #13 5 years ago

    The Bungie site shows 250k unique users in 24 hours on Halo 2. I would have expected such a hyped and anticipated game like Gears to exceed that, even in the US alone.

  • Oasis #14 5 years ago

    My Force power of clairvoyance senses anti-Halo types have been rumbled!

    /enjoys Halo 2 online but doesn't play it much

    /prefers Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike

  • gaselite #15 5 years ago

    SEXUAL INNUENDO.

  • Xerx3s #16 5 years ago

    Max_Powers: The GoW CAN'T use the H2 system because all 360 games use a new skill matching system that measures how good you are. Parties would screw up the outcome of such a system. However, MS has recently taken a turn away from skill being the most important thing to "fun with mates" being priority. CB has already commented that they are working party system that can be used with the trueskill system.

  • Hughes. #17 5 years ago

    I'll be more interested in how Gears fares in the longer term, say 2 months down the line. Most people will have played the single player campaign to death by then, so whether the multi-player will hold the attention once the initial "Wow!" factor has worn off will be the true test of the game as a single AND multi-player title.

    Then I'll give my final score.

    At the moment, from my extensive experience of looking at videos of the game, and screenshots of the game, but not actually playing the game, at all, I'd score it Elk/Bison.

    I know a lot of people have been waiting for my difinitive opinion on how it compares with Resistance: Fall of Man, and I can now officialy award it Apples/Oranges. I'm not saying which is which though!

  • Xerx3s #18 5 years ago

    ;)

  • septimus #19 5 years ago

    Bit of an asinine article considering the sales difference between Gears and Halo 2.

    So not sure of the point.

  • holloguts #20 5 years ago

    Considering the tripe of online games we've had on the 360 it's not surprising Halo 2 still does so well. Too many online bugs have been present with 360 games and those bugs for the most part are simply being ignored. The biggest bug is EA. Ubisoft keep putting out software that must be coded on some insect farm.

    GOW has always been hype. Now it has been released, it seems to confirm there was no demo because they would have lost too many sales. A bit sad really, just like stealing money by promising something they did not deliver. Still, you can look at all those 'pretty' graphics.

    Overall, 360 live has been sad. Practically all the big name games have been terribly bugged online - Quake 4, Prey, COD2, GRAW, Battlefield 2. Game bugs, server bugs (ea) communications bugs. No quality control any more. Just a case of 'get it out there, they will get over it'.

    Microsoft don't care about the quality of online games, as long as it's there, it doesn't really have to be playable.


    *EDIT*
    It seems that COD 3 can be added to the online tripe as well. So much for the announcement that COD 3 will not suffer the problems that COD 2 had. Sad sad developers.


    Edited by 1 at 12/11/06 @ 15:29

  • Oasis #21 5 years ago

    "Overall, 360 live has been sad. Practically all the big name games have been terribly bugged online - Quake 4, Prey, COD2, GRAW, Battlefield 2".

    Maybe you should try branching away from your seeming FPS deathmatch obsession? There's a wealth of diverse genres out there in the online gaming space. Try some of them. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that you can have fun online without a rail gun in-hand!

    ;)

  • Dr.Mott #22 5 years ago

    Plus those games aren't that buggy. I've played most of them to death and never came across anything too major. The worst for me was actually on SC:DA. That has horrible lag sometimes.
    Edited by 1 at 12/11/06 @ 17:09

  • MEGAJIMZ #23 5 years ago

    hahaaa we all know people who play halo 2 dont sleep, have a life and buy any other xbox game :rolls eyes:


    well most of the people on my friends list who play halo dont have gears


    hahaa also

    "Overall, 360 live has been sad. Practically all the big name games have been terribly bugged online - Quake 4, Prey, COD2, GRAW, Battlefield 2".

    Try get off 56k dial up!!! :wink:

  • Xerx3s #24 5 years ago

    GOW has always been hype. Now it has been released, it seems to confirm there was no demo because they would have lost too many sales. A bit sad really, just like stealing money by promising something they did not deliver. Still, you can look at all those 'pretty' graphics.

    That's odd, everybody that I've spoken to that played it say that the game is absolutely brilliant on/offline. Hell, even the rather negative reviews such as EG say that this game is one that must be played.

    Guess that all those people who played it must be wrong because someone who probably never played it thinks so. 1Up goes as far as saying that R:FoM feels less impressive after playing through GoW. Silly me.

  • EmiliasHorse #25 5 years ago

    holloguts you sound very upset. Here blow into this tissue, Better? Good.

  • Oasis #26 5 years ago

    I still think holloguts needs to broaden his horizons beyond the obligatory FPS online deathmatch template.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #27 5 years ago

    Besides; People on the PC are still playing Starcraft. They are still playing Quake III Arena. There are many examples. Are you telling me all other online games after those are buggy as hell and thus have less players? Let them have their Halo 2 fun if they want to. I'd take Goldeneye over any other FPS too if I had the option.

    Personally I never experienced any problems when playing online, except Doom; The lag is unbearable and I was able to finish only 1 game because all the others were that laggy that everyone dropped out.

  • The-Bodybuilder #28 5 years ago

    >"SEXUAL INNUENDO."

    Sexual Nintendo?

  • Bill Gates is Evil #29 5 years ago

    Who the fuck is that idiot saying GOW was "all hype"?

    Gears of War is one of the best games I've ever played. Single Player and Multiplayer. The game's core gameplay is absolutely brilliant, it nails that "30 seconds of fun" concept that the original Halo hit, and Halo 2 missed. The multiplayer is a duel of "who is the most clever and tactical" not "who shoots the most accurate"?

    This really is one of the best games I've ever played. I rank it up there with the Zeldas, Halos, GTAs. It's really, really good.

    I wouldn't bash a man if I thought he was giving his own assessment of the game, but I know you haven't even played the game. Douche bag.

  • YourMessageHere #30 5 years ago

    I wish I could work out why this site never misses an opportunity to mention, review and otherwise lavish attention on piffling minigames and rehashed classic arcade games when they appear on XBLA, as if they were new and deserved any attention beyond a minor footnote. Seriously, if you got a 360 and spend your time on that sort of thing, you should have saved yourself £200 and bought an old PC and downloaded MAME, free.

  • Baz_Dude #31 5 years ago

    Wait till its actually released world wide and people get the game, november 30th will be an interesting week

  • JackB #32 5 years ago

    Is this another story to justify Eurogamers Gears of War score?

    Gears hasn't even been out for an entire week and it hasn't launched in Europe. WTF?

    What's next and article on how Gears of War hasn't cured the common cold either? I wonder if this article will be pulled like the "out of context" EA article. This is embarrassing.

  • Furbs #33 5 years ago

    LOL@ Oasis commenting on 360 Live when he doesnt even have a 360.

  • Darren #34 5 years ago

    Considering the installed user base for the original Xbox is something like 24 million then it follows that a higher percentage of people will have bought Halo 2 and some of them will have upgraded to an Xbox 360. Thus you'll get X number of people playing the game on the Xbox plus X number of people playing it on the Xbox 360. Since Gears of War is 360 only and the 360 is only a year old with an installed user base of around 5 or 6 million, you really wouldn't expect it to be more popular just yet as it hasn't even been out a bloody week yet!!! LOL

    I really don't see the point in this article at all as it's more than a tad premature. Let's see how the game is doing in early 2007 or something, eh? /wink