Halo: The Master Chief Collection Dominates Steam Sales Charts
Halo has always been known as an Xbox exclusive. Sure, the first game came out on PC, and Halo 2 got a PC port way down the line, but in its heyday, the franchise has always been best in the Xbox ecosystem. Today, Microsoft has proven that the franchise can perform just as well on PC thanks to the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The game launched on the Microsoft Store, as you'd expect, but the game can also be bought on Steam, the granddaddy of PC marketplaces. The response has been pretty positive, considering that the collection holds the number one spot on Steam's list of top sellers.
At the time of writing, the number two spot is taken by none other than the Halo: Reach DLC, which adds that game to the collection. All in all, Halo is dominating the Steam sale chart, showcasing the high demand PC gamers have for Master Chief. The Master Chief Collection is also climbing its way up the leaderboard of concurrent players on Steam. In its first day, it already broke 100,000 players. The only games with higher player counts at the moment are PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
This move falls in line with Microsoft's changing strategy regarding exclusivity, which the company announced earlier in 2019. Moving forward, Microsoft plans to bring all of its Xbox Game Studios titles on PC to multiple digital storefronts, including Steam. Clearly, this proved to be a smart move, considering the early success Halo has experienced on Steam.
By opening its games up to other storefronts, Microsoft is slowly but surely giving players more choice. Everything on the Microsoft Store is subject to the Universal Windows Apps system, making it harder for consumers to make mods and other external tools. Steam releases, however, don't have that restriction, and Microsoft plans to take advantage of that with Halo: Reach. Official mod support will come next year, but 343 Industries let players know about a workaround that opens the game up to modifications.
You can pick up Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC now via the Microsoft Store or Steam. It's also available on Xbox Game Pass for PC, provided you have a subscription.