One billion Halo 3 matches played over Live

Bungie has confirmed that more than one billion Halo 3 matches have been played over Xbox Live.

That beats the number of Halo 2 matches, which currently stands at 798 million, according to the developer.

"Thanks a billion for all the good games and the continued community support," wrote the Bungie team. "We're in awe of the success Halo 3 has been met with, but we're not done yet. Stick around and stay tuned, there's definitely more to come.”

At the beginning of the year, Microsoft revealed that the Halo series had sold over 25 million units worldwide.

Halo Wars, the RTS game based on the franchise, was released last week and entered the UK charts at number two. The next title in the series is Halo: ODST, due later this year.