Halo 3 beta by the numbers
by Ross Miller 
{ Jun 13th 2007 at 2:26PM }
820,000 unique participants contributed to over 12 million hours of online gameplay, which averages to 14.6 hours per person. According to the press release, that number is "equivalent to more than 1,400 years of continuous play by one person," but since one person cannot play multiplayer by themselves, we're going to rephrase that to "a 700-year long death match." Somebody tell the Highlander.
With approximately 8,760 hours in one year, a 1,400-year game session would put the total play time closer to 12.26 million. 260,000 extra hours is nothing to scoff at.
The press release also claims 350 terabytes of data downloaded from Xbox Live. At 1,000 GB per TB and approximately 900 MB per Halo 3 beta, that amounts to just under 390,000 downloads. That equates to approximately 2.10 unique participants for every download. Xbox Live servers therefore would have sent out all data from the Library of Congress five times.
Finally, 580,000 saved films created by users, representing more than 2.7 TB of data and amounting to around 1.49 films per download (or 0.71 per person). Got all that? Good, keep studying because you'll all be quizzed on it later.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mette @ Jul 24th 2009 8:35PM
Ever heard of dyscalculia? "Math dyslexia". Check out http://dyscalculiaforum.com
King of all Wiidia @ Jun 13th 2007 2:30PM
After playing Halo 3 Beta, I would say I'm looking forward to Unreal 3 much more now. It will probably have much better graphics as well.
konajinx @ Jun 13th 2007 2:31PM
My play time on the beta actually averaged (or equaled) less than an hour. Ta da!
Breserk @ Jun 13th 2007 2:32PM
There are 1024 megabytes in one gigabyte and fish are stinky.
Phaty000 @ Jun 13th 2007 2:36PM
My beta playtime?
Probably 20-25 hours.
Good stuff, can't wait for the final game.
Eclipse @ Jun 13th 2007 2:35PM
That beta owned me and my buddies. owned. badly. lots. I'm almost scared what the full meal deal will do. I probably put in about 20 hours or so here.
Arglor @ Jun 13th 2007 2:36PM
I'm confused. Did some people not have to download the client to play the game?
How can you have that many "unique" users but only have less then half of the clients downloaded by people. Were the users using the same xbox to multiplay? then how unique are those users?
I thought unique user could be equated to system. This is interesting number use.
GJM @ Jun 13th 2007 2:37PM
Well I didn't contribute much. 3 sessions, about an hour each was all I could take. I just felt it was more of the same and did not evolve the series at all. Hell, even PD0 had cover. I am looking forward to the campaign and co-op though. Thankfully I enjoyed Crackdown...
Kye @ Jun 13th 2007 2:38PM
Maths scares me.
It's the only thing in the world that's [arguably] perfect.
Ross Miller @ Jun 13th 2007 2:41PM
Breserk --
That depends on if you're using the SI's base-10 definition or Legacy units.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte
For the sake of this analysis, we're going to assume Microsoft was referring to SI units.
Rosco
Joystiq
Fuzz @ Jun 13th 2007 2:41PM
So if there were 390 000 downloads, and Crackdown sold 1.26 million copies, does that mean 900 000 people bought Crackdown for the sole reason of playing Crackdown? Doesn't that go against everything the blogs have been saying? (Crackdown only bought for Halo beta). Could blogs be wrong???
Shagittarius @ Jun 13th 2007 2:41PM
I played 1 time for about 20 minutes. Saw it was Halo 2 gameplay turned it off to wait and see the single player campaign...
Grindstone @ Jun 13th 2007 2:50PM
Shag, I think you mean improved Halo 2 gameplay, which it clearly was. What were you expecting, a complete overhaul of the Halo gameplay? Why? It was fun to begin with, just needed a bit more tuning. Meh, you just like to hear yourself rant.
I played 238 games, whatever that equals out to in time, I know not. But I did have a lot of fun with the beta and I look forward to the final product, albeit +100 days from now. It's gunna be a long summer.
sheppy @ Jun 13th 2007 2:50PM
I'm confused... Microsoft pretty much confirmed "lot's of people played." Is that the jist of it?
Heh...
Incidently, I got uber pwn'd. I swear I spent more time in ragdoll mode than I did in game....
leland @ Jun 13th 2007 2:53PM
Do those numbers include time spent waiting while matchmaking? That's where I spent most of my time. Waiting for 9 friggin countdown timers.
gators 4bms @ Jun 13th 2007 2:59PM
I freaking loved the beta and there should be a funeral for it. I need closure. I have tried to go back to halo 2 the last couple of days but i swear i have died because i didnt have the the bubble shield or power drainer. Going back to the previous halo is like hooking up with my friends mom before she was my friends mom. It is just note as cool! halo 3 i do miss you and if we could just have break up sex one last time. and for the people that claim that halo 3 graphics are
not much better than halo 2, well lets just say there is a place for you in hell, LIAR!
bobartig @ Jun 13th 2007 3:02PM
Hey I took complex analysis, and can tell you that it does not involve that many numbers. Our curriculum was mostly line integrals and orientation preserving circle homeomorphisms.
And why are all you equations classical mechanics?
Sadly, I have nothing relevant to contribute regarding the Halo 3 beta (not a fan of the series). Hope everyone who participated had fun, and I hope Halo3 rocks the next gen consoles. Ok, just the x360.
D @ Jun 13th 2007 3:04PM
I came out at 12,012,180 hours (820,000 * 14.649)
Your reverse calculations are adding numbers :)
12,180 is substantially less than 260,000
Raikage @ Jun 13th 2007 3:07PM
I played about 10 min.... meh.... It's Halo, It's fun, It will be fun when it comes out. I don't need to play it 20 hours like some people. I can only stand like 2 hours at a time anyway (not that it isn't fun, I just get bored...). I'll get my play time in when it comes out. It'll be fun.
PS I dont have a 360 but it will be the game all my friends are playing for at least 2 years so.... yeah......
Matt B @ Jun 13th 2007 3:08PM
That is a ton of wasted time.
Ross Miller @ Jun 13th 2007 3:14PM
bobartig --
Complex analysis was just a random course I chose because if I mentioned something like topology, then a substantially fewer number of people would get the reference.
But yeah, in my CA course there wasn't much in terms of numbers either. However, I certainly saw a lot more in that course than I did with multivariable calculus, real analysis, modern algebra, etc.
Rosco
Joystiq
Raikage @ Jun 13th 2007 3:11PM
@Matt
Time you enjoy wasting is not time wasted. Plus your just bitter because you can't waste anytime with your PS3... Burn...
PS I don't mean it man....
Ross Miller @ Jun 13th 2007 3:14PM
D --
I don't know where you got 14.649 from, so feel free to explain, but here's my method more laid out.
1 year = (365 days/year) * (24 hours / day) = 8,760 hours / year
8,760 hours / year * (1,400 years) = 12.26 mln (approx.)
Utils @ Jun 13th 2007 3:16PM
#4 "Full meal deal?" WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
DWells55 @ Jun 13th 2007 3:18PM
I probably got a solid 100 hours out of the Beta.
Trio @ Jun 13th 2007 3:19PM
Microsoft screw the Halo 3 launch with the Halo beta, there are a lot of people dissapointed with this game because of the graphics and gameplay, shame on you microsooft shame on you.......
ill trooper @ Jun 13th 2007 3:19PM
Did it really take the average person 14.6 hours to realize it isn't much different from Halo2? Not that anyone who cares will see that as a 'bad thing.'
I played a few games, but it's not for me. Fragfests only have a limited appeal to me, and that single player campaign on Halo2 was tedious. I think Halo's finest hour has passed - Halo2 was state of the art on a large installed xbox base, released at the perfect time: people were hungry to buy another console beyond the PS2, so it moved Xboxes. It captured the spirit of everyone because it had finally gone multiplayer and did it so well. Still probably the best online matchmaking, stats, dynamic hosting, etc.
But there aren't as many 360s out there and Halo 2 runs very well on them already. While I still see it being huge, I also see it being a three-year old mindset that people won't get the same fulfillment from. The 'Next Halo' won't be Halo3, ironically.
Honestly, I will stay with my feeling that Crackdown will be judged a better game in the long run. If that game had 'versus,' Halo3 would be dead on arrival.
gators 4bms @ Jun 13th 2007 3:59PM
#26 what is wrong with the beta, who would ever say that is sucked to play a game before it came out. The crisp graphics look fine and they still have 3 months to fine tune. As far as the gameplay is concerned the addition of the X button features is cool without being an huge advantage for one team. The controls are also spot on! If you bang on this game and own an xbox then your parents cant afford a 360, if you own a ps3 and are hating on this game then get back on resistance, which you have been playing since november because you have no other choice for a good game, and finally if you own a 360 and hate on halo 3, well then you are just a tard and you got your pants at the pants store!
Mr Khan @ Jun 13th 2007 3:38PM
I had friends who loved it, and friends who hated it (and those who hated it are people who love Halo 2)
I enjoyed what i saw of it, but saw nothing really compelling. A good campaign is what'll put this game over the top, and there's a solid chance that it'll at least be better than Halo 2's campaign (and hopefully as good as Halo's)
Matt B @ Jun 13th 2007 3:42PM
I was J/K too Raikage. ;)
THis kind of reminds me when CS:Source came out and the 1.6 guys weren't as good at it so they said it sucked. They were just pussy AWP whores anyway.
Adam @ Jun 13th 2007 3:57PM
@ #4/Arglor
My friend bought Crackdown and I ended up playing with him a lot. We used multiple gamertags for it though, I think we ended up using 3 gamertags total for the playing and that is how there could be so many gamertags per download.
okenny @ Jun 13th 2007 3:56PM
be aware people, when speaking about "information" or data over a network, it is always base ten and not base 2: Basic information theory 101.
T-MeK @ Jun 13th 2007 4:09PM
Pretty impressive numbers. Man i can not wait for this game to come out!
-TMEK
http://ionglow.com
Jake @ Jun 13th 2007 5:06PM
Halo3 is just fun. I don't know how else to describe it. People here scream this and that, saying they expected a 3rd person JRPG with cover system and not something that was just like Halo2. Of course it is going to be Halo2 with better everything. That is what the hell everyone who actually wants the game wants. People who don't want the game are the ones that wanted it to be something different, so they could knock on it for that and not buy it anyways.
The bottom line is that whatever they have been doing with halo, it is just simply fun. That's it. No "level design sucks", "weapons off balanced", "teh gfx, o noes", etc. Just a fun shooter that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Luckily for 360 owners, there are still a heluva lot of other games coming out between now and Christmas. I don't even know what a PS3 only owner has to look forward to between now and December. Lair and Heavenly? Good luck with that.
Roflgoat @ Jun 13th 2007 5:10PM
Yay for phsyics equations! Oh, and there's a lambda in there, so it's kinda related to video games (disregarding the background image)
Dennis @ Jun 13th 2007 5:57PM
14.6 hours per person
since 820,000 * 14.6 is less then 12 million i assume they omitted some decimals so i went for 3 digits behind the period before becoming 14.6 being 14.649 (14.650 would have been 14.7 iirc my high school math right)
Dennis @ Jun 13th 2007 5:59PM
over 1400 years and more than 12 million are a bit to ambiguous for my taste, 820,000 and 14.6 were less ambiguous.
Daryl @ Jun 13th 2007 6:02PM
Regarding the extra 260,000 hours that Microsoft was tagging on to their numbers, depending on how they did their math, they may have only been able to use two significant digits (look that one up, folks), and therefore (for mathematical purposes) had to use 1,400 years instead of whatever the acual calculated number may have been. Don't blame Microsoft, blame the worldly scholars who came up with this method.
And to keep this on track, I played the Halo 3 Beta at a friend's house (which is probably why there are 2.1 unique participants per download), and I enjoyed it. I never played much into Halo single-player, multi-player was really what attracted me, and this kept everything the exact same from Halo 2, with some nicely added features. As the saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
Robert @ Jun 13th 2007 6:37PM
Can I just say that I hope that the focus isn't on multi-player? I mean, I know you guys like that crap, but I just can't stand playing against other people I don't know. Friends, yes. But random internet people? It's just not at all enjoyable. The word "idiots" comes to mind...
I loved the single-player campaign of the first and second games, but I really hope that the beta doesn't foreshadow a developer focus on the multi-player aspect of Halo 3.