Halo 4

Halo 4 hasn’t been on store shelves all that long, and yet the game is already making “entertainment history” due to its massive sales numbers.

How massive? In its first 24 hours, Microsoft claims Halo 4 had more than $220 million in global sales—and predicts the game will go on to clear $300 million in its first week. This places Halo 4 as the biggest launch in the franchise’s history, and the “biggest entertainment launch of the year to date”.

That’s not all: In their press release about this feat today, Microsoft also notes that that means Halo 4 “eclipsing the record for the biggest day-one opening in U.S. box office history, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and the biggest movie of 2012, The Avengers – based on U.S. sales alone.”

“We’re thrilled that ‘Halo 4′ has emerged as the biggest U.S. entertainment launch of the year,” corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios Phil Spencer said in the press release. “Thanks to the millions of fans worldwide who helped make this another record-breaking launch for the ‘Halo’ franchise, ‘Halo 4′ is kicking off a strong holiday season and has become the must-have blockbuster experience of the year.”

Of course, tomorrow brings a potential challenger to all of this: Call of Duty: Black Ops II. With the power of the Call of Duty franchise, and the fact that the game is multi-platform—while Halo 4 is Xbox 360-only—could Treyarch’s latest outmatch Master Chief when it comes to setting records? Let us know what you think in the comments below!