Halo has always been the Xbox's star franchise, and here's why: after the launch of Halo 5: Guardians last week, the franchise has now soared to over $5 billion in lifetime games and hardware sales. That includes over $400 million made in first week sales of Guardians, which has become the fastest-selling Xbox One exclusive. As you might expect from those figures, Halo 5 was pretty popular last week, making it both the most played game on Xbox One and Xbox Live, with 7 million multiplayer matches played so far. You can read our review of the game right here.

Those are impressive figures for the franchise, though it falls short of breaking top video game records. Grand Theft Auto V, for instance, took in $1 billion in just three days. But Microsoft's bigger point is simply that the Halo series continues to be a strong performer. It's counting Guardians' launch as the "biggest" Halo launch to date, and the game's immediate popularity suggests that it'll continue to do well going into the holidays. Ahead of the launch of Halo 4, the Halo franchise had nearly reached $3 billion in total revenue, so it seems that 343 Industries is doing well with the property.