'Halo 5: Guardians' earns biggest launch in franchise history

REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Halo 5: Guardians has earned over $400 million in global sales on its way to becoming the biggest launch in franchise history and the fastest selling exclusive on Xbox One.

According to Microsoft, the 5th installment in the long-running first-person shooter series attained the feat one week after release and now pushes the franchise total over $5 billion in lifetime sales.

Already players have logged in more than 21 million hours of total gameplay across the game's various single player and multiplayer modes. Halo 5 has also earned the Guinness World Record for the most-watched video game launch broadcast with over 330,000 streams on the evenings's broadcast and 5.5 million total views across the week.

"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 Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's Xbox division. "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."

Halo 5: Guardians launched on Oct. 27, exclusively for Xbox One.