Xbox Gaming in South Africa

Happy Halo Day, SPARTANs. While you grind out your last few torturous hours in the office before you get home to your Legendary Edition and bitter spouse, we thought we'd share with you some interesting facts and figures to repeat at your next dinner party (or break-up), and impress everybody.

• 2001: Year the original game, “Halo: Combat Evolved” was released.
• 34 million: Number of copies of Halo games sold worldwide.
• 3.3 billion: Hours of Halo logged by players connected to Xbox LIVE.
• #1: Halo’s ranking with the Guinness World Records reader poll about their favorite video game series of all time.
• $2 billion: Amount in sales the Halo franchise is set to surpass this year.
• $170 million: Amount of first-day sales for “Halo 3” in the U.S., which broke all previous single-day entertainment launch records.
• 5: Number of Halo-themed novels that have been New York Times bestsellers.
• 6.3 million: Number of Halo books, comics and strategy guides sold.
• 2.7 million: Number of people who played the “Halo: Reach” multiplayer beta in spring 2010 (making it the largest console video game beta test on record).

[via Press Release]