More than 2.7 million players have logged on and played Halo 3 since it shipped on September 25, giving a rough estimate of the copies that have made it into gamers' hands. Already on its way to stealing the lives of the world's youth, Halo 3 garnered more than 40 million hours of play online during its first week, according to the announcement, equivalent to 4,500 years of nonstop gaming.

The announcement follows Microsoft's previous claim of record-breaking $170 million launch day sales for the game, easily surpassing Halo 2's $125 million day-one revenues.