When did Halo come out? All Halo games ranked chronologically

The FPS franchise, Halo, was originally developed by Bungie. The first game from the series, Combat Evolved, was released back on November 15, 2001. Since then there have been several sequels and even changed developers to 343 Industries after 2010. The latest iteration in the series was released on November 15, 2021. It was developed by 343 Industries and published by Xbox Game Studios.

The first release from the franchise, Combat Evolved, was a strategy game. Later, in the year 2000, after Microsoft acquired Bungie, Halo titles were turned into first-person shooters and released exclusively for the Xbox.

In this article, we look at all the games in chronological order.

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All Halo games ranked chronologically

Halo's futuristic world design and characteristic gameplay, along with its intriguing and captivating storyline, have made it popular among many gamers. For those unaware, there are 16 games in the series.

These are:

Bungie era (2001-2010)

• Combat Evolved (2001)
• Halo 2 (2004)
• Halo 3 (2007)
• Wars (2009)
• ODST (2009)
• Reach (2010)

After the release of Reach, Bungie stopped developing Halo games. The franchise was then taken over by 343 Industries in 2011 under the same publisher, Xbox Game Studios.

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343 Industries era (2011-present)

• Combat Evolved Anniversary (2011)
• Halo 4 (2012)
• Spartan Assault (2013)
• The Master Chief Collection (2014)
• Spartan Strike (2015)
• Guardians (2015)
• Wars 2 (2017)
• Recruit (2017)
• Fireteam Raven (2018)
• Infinite (2021)

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Future plans for the franchise explored

During this year’s World Championships of the game, 343 Industries officially announced its rebranding as Halo Studios on October 6, 2024. Moreover, the team revealed through a post on X that they would be switching to Unreal Engine 5 for future titles. This could mean exponentially improved graphics and gameplay for what is an already popular gaming franchise.

343 Industries also unveiled ‘Project Foundry,’ as it plans to explore the potential of the new Unreal Engine 5 and how it affects the franchise's future. For now, things look to be in good hands with the developers having revealed their future plans. It will be interesting to see how the series shapes up and what it will offer fans.