Raven722 said:
From what I understand the Halo 4 multiplayer scene is largely dead and has been for some time. That seems to be what a number of people have said. People buy it but not nearly as many people play it actively online. I'm not sure how true that is but I've heard it said by both people I know and internet personalities. Also, Halo 4 may have sold that many copies but one wonders if that's not simply because the 360 lacked any other worthwhile exclusives at that time and since. No doubt it was a great game and worthy of selling well but you have 80 million 360's sitting out there and having no other new exclusive titles to really sink money into other than a franchise that was already extremely popular. It was bound to sell but how much of that was on its own merit? I don't think I really need to point this out but there was nowhere near the hysteria surrounding Halo 4 as there was around Halo 2 or Halo 3. You may not notice it in the sales right now but the franchise is starting to get that collective "meh" feeling from the gaming community. The same feeling that started to take hold surrounding Call of Duty since Modern Warfare 3. |
You are right about there being a significant population decline, but that doesn't mean people don't enjoy Halo. Here is the Halo 4 population chart: http://halocharts.com/2013/playlists_halo4.php
Now you'd be surprised to know that Halo 3 and Reach have similar numbers of online players. So it seems as if Halo 4's online players have shifted back to playing 3 and reach. The reason there was a huge decline was because Halo gamers were dissappointed with 343's changes to the multiplayer. Plus the online had loads of problems for months like lots of lag and long waiting times to find games.
As for its decline, I have no reason to believe the series is on decline so far. Perhaps with more and more releases there will be, but so far the sales don't suggest a declining trend. They also haven't shown any significant growth either though. All of the releases have sold similar amounts.