A Master Chief Collection PS5 release "would certainly have done far better".

Image credit: Halo Studios, Xbox.

Halo: Campaign Evolved - the remake of the original Halo 1 campaign and the first Halo game released on PlayStation - has struggled to sell in meaningful quantities, and the probable reason for it? A lack of multiplayer.

According to Alinea Analytics, Halo: Campaign Evolved sold 1.2 million copies across Steam, PS5 and Xbox in two weeks. Xbox was the lead platform with 42 percent of sales - a figure that includes sales via Xbox app on PC - but PlayStation nearly equalled it with 41 percent, which left Steam with 17 percent.

The player number was higher because Halo: Campaign Evolved was a day-one Game Pass release, attracting around 2.1 million players on PC and console on the service, and approximately 600,000 of those spent $20 more on the Premium Pass so they could play the game five days early.

As for why the sales are weak for a ground-up remake of one of the most beloved shooters, Alinea analyst Rhys Elliott suggested the price ($50 / £50) may have been too high - especially considering the Master Chief Collection - which includes multiple Halo games and their multiplayer modes - is cheaper, at $40 / £40, and has dropped far lower in sales.

Alinea estimates Campaign Evolved brought in $67m (£49.6m) in gross revenue, a far cry from the recently released - and similarly Microsoft-published - Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 ports, which have reportedly brought in $435m (£322.2m) combined.

Elliott actually suggests it was those Black Ops ports that essentially stole Halo's thunder, in large part because they include multiplayer where Campaign Evolved does not. Despite being simple ports with plenty of technical shortcomings, the two Black Ops games outsold Halo 16-to-1, and it's all so players could relive their younger days in their multiplayer lobbies.

"The only thing the Halo remake left out is the one thing that turned two ancient COD ports into a half-billion-dollar phenomenon," said Elliott. "A Master Chief Collection release on PS5, multiplayer and all, would certainly have done far better than this campaign-only remake did."

It's a disappointing result for a game that, as the first Halo title released on PlayStation - a platform with a larger installed base than Xbox - probably could or should have had a larger impact. And it isn't because the remake is rubbish; quite the opposite. "Halo: Campaign Evolved is more successful at being a reinvention of an FPS classic than it is a reproduction - and that needn't be a bad thing," wrote Dom in our Halo: Campaign Evolved review.

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