Halo 3 still Number 1 on Xbox Live

Just yesterday, we posted a head to head between Gears of War 2 and Halo 3 from IGN that asked the question of which one of the two huge Xbox 360 exclusives was the absolute must-have for the system.

For anyone who missed it and doesn’t feel like going back to watch the video, Halo 3 won. Many will argue that Gears of War 2 is the better game but the latest statistics from Xbox Live are saying quite the opposite.

While the full list is posted after the jump, let me lay things out for you. Firstly, this list shows what people have been playing while connected to Live, not how many people were playing the games multiplayer modes on Xbox Live so make a note of that.

The results, especially after this recent gaming season, are astounding.

Ok, so here is the list:

1. Halo 3
2. Gear of War 2
3. CoD: World at War
4. GTA IV
5. Fable II
6. Left 4 Dead
7. Madden NFL 09
8. Fallout 3
9. FIFA 09

Now here is the amazing thing, even though we have just been through arguably the best gaming release season of all time, the hugely popular multiplayer modes found in both Gears of War 2 and even Call of Duty: World at War could not take the number 1 spot from the (already over a year old) phenomenon that is Halo 3.

That means that even though there was a large number of people playing Call of Duty and Gears of War’s single player campaign as well as multiplayer modes (including the incredibly addictive Gears of War 2 semi co-op experience, Horde), Halo 3 still took the top spot with what can now only be people who are still playing the multiplayer.

While South Africans never really caught on to Halo 3 like the Americans did, we have to appreciate that Bungie must have done something very right to still have the top spot over all this time.

Call of Duty 4 is sitting just below Call of Duty: World at War, meaning that while there are still a lot of players who prefer last years offering, World at War is still making quite an impact on the world, regardless of the fact that Treyarch were at the helm.

Just seeing this is almost making me want to go back and play some more Halo 3 multiplayer* just to try and see if I can see what all the fuss is about.

Honorable mentions come in with Left 4 Dead which is proving to be a massively fun multiplayer experience as well as GTA IV considering it’s age and even Fallout 3 considering that it doesn’t have any multiplayer. I want to make a mention of Fable II as well although I think that if its co-op multiplayer had been better, it might have made more of an impact.

Source: VG247

*ED: Everytime I hear about people loving Halo 3 I get the urge to go back and play it again, hell I want to do the entire campaign again in co-op.

Last Updated: December 3, 2008