Halo: Reach doubled UK Xbox 360 console sales, "marked effect"

The Bungie sci-fi shooter managed to clear 300k copies within its first 24 hours in the UK, but it also shot Xbox 360 hardware sales ”up 99 percent”.

This ”marked effect on hardware” was felt for the week ending September 18th. Halo: Reach launched earlier on the 14th. It’s the 5th biggest UK launch.

It was the official UK chart monitor Gfk-ChartTrack that revealed the boon to hardware sales. The last big increase for Xbox 360 consoles at retail was the launch of the new Xbox 360 SKU, which skyrocketed sales 1,000 percent.

Allegedly the limited edition Halo-themed Xbox 360 SKU, which was exclusive to UK retailer GAME, played a significant role in the 99 percent sales hike.

Bungie’s praises are being sung high indeed, with their new publishing partner Activision recently calling the studio the ”last remaining high quality independent developer”. Microsoft Game Studios are likely to fine tune the Halo development cycle.