That is likely for the best, a battle royale game turned giant big team battle game probably wouldn't have been a success. Traditionally big team battle playlists in Halo had less players than Arena playlists, and the bigger they went, the worse they did relative to arena, the 12v12 in Halo 5 and Infinite both underperformed compared to earlier 8v8 BTB modes in the Bungie games. Sounds like this game was aiming for even bigger, just how big hard to say, Battlefield already proved that 64v64 doesn't really work, which is why DICE returned to 32v32. Even if it was 32v32 I just don't think it would have worked for Halo, the more players you have in Halo, the less the systems that made Halo different from other shooters, like shields, matter, as a shield does nothing if you get hit by multiple players BR headshot at once, no chance to even sprint for cover. I actually liked 8v8 BTB in Halo 2-4, but just moving to 12v12 starting with 5 hurt it alot imo. The BTB maps got bigger for 12v12 which hurt travel time and therefore the amount of time each match that you were actually in combat instead of just running across a map being bored.
Last edited by shikamaru317 - on 19 July 2026
