The multiplayer mode for Halo Infinite's multiplayer mode is available now on Xbox Game and PC, as part of the 20th-anniversary celebrations for the series, as well as for the Xbox line of consoles.
Halo Infinite's multiplayer mode is entirely free-to-play. The full version of the game is set to be released on December 8, which will include the single-player campaign mode. Halo Infinite won't have a co-op campaign or Forge mode at launch, but they are expected to be added later. Halo Infinite already received a significant delay that pushed it out of the launch window of the Xbox Series X/S, and it's likely that the devs are focusing on the two most important aspects of the game in order to ensure it hits its holiday 2021 release date.
Microsoft might have hoped that the abrupt Halo Infinite multiplayer drop would have taken the gaming world by storm. But alas, the news leaked early. On the bright side, the leaks incentivized lots of people to be at their computers during the 20th anniversary Xbox show, waiting for the official announcement. This led to an unprecedented number of people playing the multiplayer content at launch. According to Daniel Ahmad on Twitter, Halo Infinite has beaten the concurrent player number for an Xbox Game Studios title on Steam.
Halo Infinite managed to hit 162k concurrent s within three hours of launch, beating out the numbers held by Halo: The Master Chief Collection and the recent launch of Forza Horizon 5. These numbers only reflect the players on Steam, and there are still the players on Xbox systems to consider, as well as those who play games on PC without Steam, so it's unclear what the split would be across all platforms.
Halo Infinite has only been available for a few hours and the hype going into its launch (even though it was meant to be a surprise) was sky-high. The Halo Infinite launch leak may have even helped the game at launch. The release of a new Halo game still holds value for fans of the FPS genre, and Halo Infinite might finally give the Xbox Series X/S the big must-have holiday title that it was supposed to be in 2020.
The multiplayer mode for Halo Infinite is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The full version of the game will launch on December 8, 2021.
Source: Daniel Ahmad/Twitter
