I'm not saying you said that. Let me explain it another way. WHY exactly would anyone congratulate them and ignore the rest when everything was full of spin and we still don't know how well Halo actually did? Do you even know what your congratulating? It's like burying your head in the sand. Anyway my original argument is moot now that the titles been changed. So back to the topic...

I was hopeing we would get sales figures  for Halo of some kind and we didn't. So I'm disappointed. sadface.

Halo 3 hours and "number of players"
More than 2.7 million gamers have played “Halo 3” on Xbox LIVE in the first week, representing nearly one-third of the 7 million Xbox LIVE members worldwide. Within the first day of its launch, “Halo 3” players worldwide racked up more than 3.6 million hours of online gameplay, which increased more than elevenfold to 40 million hours by the end of the first week,

Halo 4 hours and "number of players"
Halo 4” also shattered the record for the largest number of players in the history of the “Halo” franchise, with over 4 million players in the first five days. Users spent a total of 31.4 million hours playing “Halo 4,”

Halo 5 hours and "number of players"
Fans have logged more than 21 million hours of total gameplay, including 12 million hours in campaign mode alone.
For Halo 5 we get the hours but no "number of players". And if we compare those hours...

Eh, we'll get numbers on NPD anyway. No one should expect Ms (or Sony, or Nintendo, or any other games company) to give sales figures right away. They might do it when they pass a milestone, but other than that, most video game companies don't give out precise sales information, and when they do, it's not often.

We know it sold about 200k first week in the UK (including digital), so we have some info to go off. NPD will provide us with a lot of what more we need to figure out approximate sales.

Hope it continues to sell well.

With so many digital / hardware avenues, there is not reason to dismiss branching revenue streams as baseless ''spin''.

A game can sell 1.5 mil and be considered a success or the other way round, can sell 3.5 mil and be a flop. Its all about maximizing your revenue. Even if Halo 5 sells 2 million, MS will sure as hell make sure they get their money's worth out of it. 

As if Halo 3 didn´t have Bundles and special editions.

https://www.google.com.br/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=halo%203%20xbox%20360%20bundle

Stelth edit: And wasn´t you saying that Halo 5 bundle sold poorely? You have to decide with narative you want to follow. 

I can play this game too. Halo 3 had 3.6 million hours spent online. Halo 5 had 9 million. 

So, congrats on the Guinness record for most viewed broadcast! =D Also congrats for the highest First-Party-title attach rate, best-selling opening week Digital Store title, and most streamed Xbox One exclusive game.

That PR spin is pretty glorious. Software and hardware.

There is no clear information that previews games were software only.

For Halo the release says it has 2,7mi players wich could mean 2,5mi sold with barely make the $200mi mark with 60$ standards ganes.

I thought the source said it was like 150k physical sales?

then people on neogaf point out evidence from past games of the same genre, that digital sales are like 10-15% of the physical sales.

Basically First week from UK is : 150k + whatever % you think digital sales account for.

Most people assume this around 10-20% or so (usually its on the lower end).

If we re generous and give it 20% sales as digital downloads, that means its sold :

150,000 physical and 30,000 digital sales = total of 180,000 (with digital)

People on neogaf brought up earlier FW sales of halo games in the past from the UK, and even includeing digital, sales where down from past titles.