Halo 5: Guardians was released on Xbox One in Japan last week and we have finally received the result of the total sales of the game in its debut week. As expected, the game was the worst selling mainline Halo game since the series first made its debut on Xbox platform. However, Halo was definitely a popular enough IP in the past, that managed to sell reasonable numbers and also helped in selling Xbox hardware.
Halo 5: Guardians opened at Number 11 in the Top 20 software list in Japan for its debut week. It sold 7,455 copies in total during its debut week and before its launch in Japan, Xbox One sales almost doubled from ~440 to more than a thousand consoles sold.
Interestingly, if we take a look at the sales data of Halo series in Japan, it has done really well in the past so it is surprising to see that a mainline entry in the series sold less than 10k, when it used to average around 30k.
It is worth pointing out that these numbers for Halo 5: Guardians are taken from Media Create, while the rest of the sales data is from Famitsu. The hardware sales of Xbox One also stand at a paltry 57,863 consoles sold during the launch of Halo 5: Guardians in Japan. For comparison, Xbox 360 had sold 415,491 units before the launch of Halo 3.
| Game Name | Platform | Debut Week |
|---|---|---|
| Halo | Xbox | 31,041 |
| Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary | Xbox 360 | 11, 238 |
| Halo History Pack (Platinum Coll) | Xbox | 4,600 |
| Halo 2 | Xbox | 29, 235 |
| Halo 3 | Xbox 360 | 61,143 |
| Halo 3 (Platinum Coll) | Xbox 360 | 2,500 |
| Halo Wars | Xbox 360 | 14,168 |
| Halo 3: ODST | Xbox 360 | 33,020 |
| Halo: Reach | Xbox 360 | 38, 644 |
| Halo 4 | Xbox 360 | 31, 467 |
| Halo: The Mast Chief Collection | Xbox One | 4,667 |
| Halo 5: Guardians | Xbox One | 7,455 |
Halo 5: Guardians also had one of the weakest opening for the series in the UK, so it is not something that is limited to a specific region. It seems like the bad word of mouth from Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo 4 has ruined and damaged the reputation of the brand. It remains to be seen what affect it will have on the sales of Halo 5: Guardians in US, since Halo typically sells the most in US.
Halo 5: Guardians was released on October 27th exclusively on the Xbox One. It was developed by 343i Industries, whose first game was Halo 4 on the Xbox 360.
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