So far the Halo Xbox franchise has reportedly pulled in impressive revenues of around $2bn and while Halo 3 sold over 8m copies and collected $300m in its first week on sale, Halo: Reach is on course to smash its predecessors' record.

IT Portal reported Halo: Reach has broken the record for the largest number of Xbox Live users playing it at the same time, which isn't bad as the news was announced just over one day since the game's launch. The record was last held by Modern Warfare 2 with more than 2m people playing simultaneously at some point in November 2009.

Predictably, Halo: Reach has topped the UK's gaming charts but it is also believed that the game is also making Microsoft extra money as people are forking out for Xbox Live credits and the console itself.

Analysts told The FT they expect subscriptions to the Xbox Live Gold service to soar, while limited edition hardware like controllers could cash in on the launch too.

Anita Frazier, an analyst at NPD told the newspaper: "If hardware sales react in a similar fashion to what was experienced when Halo 3 was launched in September 2007, September could be a huge sales month for Xbox 360 hardware."

However, Halo: Reach has got some catching up to do as the Call of Duty franchise is the most popular first person shooter and is set to consolidate its lead when Call of Duty: Black Ops is unleashed across all consoles in November, unlike Halo which is exclusive to the Xbox 360.