It's widely accepted that 343i turned a corner with Halo 5: Guardians, and that the studio's second core Halo entry is a genuine return to form for the sci-fi shooter series. Not only does the critical reception back that up, but the player count does too.
News of the impressive player numbers comes via Halo community manager Andy Dudynsky, who revealed on Reddit that the stats are looking good. Halo 3 good.
"This isn't something we've talked about yet, but I am rather happy to share that even before the free play period, Halo 5 has had the highest monthly active players for a Halo title since Halo 3."
Not only that, but the game's popularity continues to grow: "Also exciting is the increase that H5 has seen in players each month over the past few months (we just got done looking at June numbers, which are once again higher than the previous month). As you can imagine this is pretty darn exciting to see."