The Master Chief Collection just beat Halo Infinite in peak Steam players

Plenty of game developers have tried to create “the Halo killer” over the years. To actually beat Halo, you need another Halo, as it turns out.

For the first time since Halo Infinite’s launch, it was overtaken by The Master Chief Collection on Steam. Checking SteamDB’s 24-hour peak chart, MCC has beaten Infinite by about one thousand players as of the time of this writing: the former had 9,212 players, while the latter sat at 8,210. While the thousand-player difference isn’t massive, it does have a plausible explanation. MCC just got cross-platform co-op for Halo 3 and ODST in a new update, while Infinite’s second season has only gotten a teaser trailer so far.

To be sure, this is not a story about a “dead game.” The player difference is noteworthy but not huge, and the two games’ peak concurrent players tell a very different story. MCC’s highest player count on Steam is 161,024, while Infinite’s is 272,586. That’s a greater difference of more than a hundredfold when compared to the 24-hour peak.

Both games are still getting lots of attention from developer 343 Industries. Infinite’s second season kicks off on Tuesday, May 3. The latest Halo game might also start offering more microtransactions, according to a recent report from 343.