You pretty much can when it comes to Halo. Halo 3 sold more then Halo 5 on a smaller install base.

What does that mean? What performance? What metric are you using? Attachment rate? The attachment rate for a single game is useless becuase fanbases don't increase in sync with userbase. Especially for a game like Halo. The people who loved Halo on the 360 are the people who are buying an Xbox One.

I am serious here. You are expecting the 343i Halo to outsell it's predecessor when it had 6 times more people that might show interest in the game? What kind of twisted logic is that?

But that was Halo 3. I don't think any Halo will surpass it unless the amount of Xbox console owners surpasses the 100M mark.

NO ONE can compare the third entry to any other Halo. We all know we will never see one as good as H3. The only fair comparison is 4, since it was the only other game developed by 343i, and it matched Halo 3, but it had 6 times the gamers to sell to.

IN fact, since the amount of users fluctuates, using anything other than percentages to gauge a games success is foolish at best and laughable at worst. Or are you telling me that this Halo had to sell like H3?

Since I am feeling generous, I won't ask you to read the comment on the last page and look for it yourself. Instead, show some gratitude that I was in a good mood to post this here for you all to read...

On the note of the install base. Halo 4 sold around 10% of the 360s install base while halo 5 sold around 15% of the X1 install base as of dec 12th if we only include retail.

Comparing it only to Halo 4 is convenient for your argument and is definitely not the fair comparison. So I reject that.

If Halo 5 sold like Halo 3 then we could definitely say 343 are as worthy as Bungie, and that the XB1 would probably sell close to the 360. Now it is clear that neither of those will happen. Both Halos were the first main game on their system, both are part of a popular existing franchise, both had install base at close to the same numbers, both are the 3rd Halo game total made by each developer. Lots of similarities compared to the situation Halo 4 was in.

Saying any Halo game would do anything close to the 3rd on a similar install base is insane. Those were the days before COD. Even COD,  a massive juggaurnut, is in decline. The entire genre is facing a decline, as people move away, and more and more sales move to digital platforms. 

Now Halo 5 probably did ok, but anyone expecting Halo 3 sales were insane. Its nothing to do with who's "worthy", its the fact that the genre is oversaturated at this point.

I expect mainline Halo numbers regardless of install base, if Uncharted did 3m LTD or Mario Kart did 4m LTD that would be a disaster.

Sorry, but it doesnt work that way anymore. I do expect Halo 5's legs will be far better than Halo 4's, though 7-8 million is about the best we will see, which would still be better than Halo CE, MCC, and ODST and around the same as Halo 2.

If you want to say that Halo 5 "outperformed" Halo 4 then that's up to you but simple saying that one released on a bigger install base then explain a the math behind it. You know you can say "Halo 4 had 6 times the user base so therefore time Halo 5 sales by 6", right? In fact you can look at all the franchise and the majority of releases throughout a gen do not rise in percentage anywhere near the console's. So stop trying to push the success should be meesured by attach rate.

Besides Halo should of drove XB1 sales, not holiday bf and Christmas sales, barely winning October in US (Halo launch) would of been unheard of in the past and before this generation started nobody would ever though that could happen. This is Halo's biggest failure.

The reason Halo 5 did nothing for its hardware was because exclusives no longer drive hardware. Unless its bundled, why bother getting it? Halo 5 could've had a standard 349 bundle, and easily won October, and probably would've done better in November.