... in the US alone in the first 24 hours.

http://majornelson.com/archive/2007/09/26/it-s-official-quot-halo-3-quot-registers-biggest-day-in-us-entertainment-history.aspx

Microsoft today announced that the Xbox 360 exclusive game “Halo 3” has officially become the biggest entertainment launch in history, garnering an estimated $170 million in sales in the United States alone in the first 24 hours. The Xbox 360 title beat previous records set by blockbuster theatrical releases like “Spider-man 3” and novels such as “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”

[...]

More than 1.7 million copies of “Halo 3” were preordered in the United States before a single store opened its doors at midnight, Sept. 25, making this the fasting pre-selling game in history, surpassing the previous record-setting pre-sales of “Halo 2.”

Congratulations to Microsoft! I'm sure they are very happy with their first day sales.

1.7 million copies = $170 million?

Or what...

I read that they were hoping to reach $200 million on the first day.

Excellent start though.

Nein!  (used correctly this time)

1.7 was the pre-ordered amount before stores even opened.

If it was only 1.7 million, the average game cost would've been $100 bucks, which is way too high. I think the average is like 85 bucks or something.

If all the LE & CE copies sold out then that means it sold about 2.2. million units.

Damn!

See Nintendo? Marketing causes hype. Hype causes excitment, Excitment causes pre-orders/word of month/purchase. All 3 result in money for you.

Metroid Prime 3 could have done sooo much better if hyped and marketed well :(

Im not sure but I think that average price was 70 bucks. This would mean 2.4 million sold.

I agree that Metroid Prime could have been marketed a little more, but I don't think it really had a chance against Halo 3. If you are a 360 owner and you could buy only one game this year....Halo 3 would be it. On the other hand, if you're a Wii owner and could only buy one game this year....it could be MP3, SMG, RE4, etc. Halo is Xbox.

I'm more curious on data for the next few weeks, see how much hardware sale it can boost.