HALO has been going for well over 20 years with more than a dozen titles under its belt.
The Xbox exclusive first arrived way back in 2001.
Halo is a critically acclaimed first person shooter franchise
Since then we’ve seen 16 entries, mostly following Spartan super soldier Master Chief Sierra-117.
The interstellar war is set 500 years in the future as users battle it out against foes including The Covenant, The Prophets, The Forerunners, The Flood and The Prometheans.
Any gamer looking to play through the entire collection has two ways to go about it.
They could play the games in order of their release, or for a truly immersive experience, by following the franchise in timeline order.
We’ve put together a guide to completing the series one way or the other below.
How to play the Halo games in release date order
Here are the Halo games in release order, alongside their launch dates.
To make things concise, we’ve not included the mobile games or anniversary remakes.
- Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)
- Halo 2 (2004)
- Halo 3 (2007)
- Halo Wars (2009)
- Halo 3: ODST (2009)
- Halo Reach (2010)
- Halo 4 (2012)
- Halo 5: Guardians (2015)
- Halo Wars 2 (2017)
- Halo Infinite (2021)
How to play the Halo games in chronological order
You can also play the games in order of when they were set.
- Halo Wars (2531)
- Halo Reach (2552)
- Halo: Combat Evolved (2552)
- Halo 2 (2552)
- Halo 3 (2552)
- Halo 3: ODST (2552)
- Halo 4 (2557)
- Halo 5: Guardians (2558)
- Halo Wars 2 (2559)
- Halo Infinite (2560)
Will there be any more Halo games?
Developers of the Halo franchise, 343 studios, have yet to announce if any further games will be released.
The latest title, Halo Infinite, was delayed for over a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, amongst other factors.
It’s campaign mode, which follows The Master Chief, was released on December 8, 2021.
But, the former Infinite director Chris Lee said that the title is intended to pave the way for future Halo games.
“Halo Infinite is the start of our platform for the future,” he said.
“We want Infinite to grow over time, versus going to those numbered titles and having all that segmentation that we had before.
“It’s really about creating Halo Infinite as the start of the next 10 years for Halo and then building that as we go with our fans and community.”
