'Halo 3' passes one billionth match

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

The developer revealed on its official website that the one billionth game occurred at 6:36am PST when four players participated in a three minute and nineteen second match of Infection on Foundry.

Halo 3's achievement also exceeds the number of Xbox Live games that have been played on its predecessor, which presently stands at 798 million.

"Thanks a billion for all the good games and the continued community support," the Bungie team commented.

"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."

Microsoft revealed earlier in the year that the Halo series has sold over 25 million copies around the world since the first game was released in 2001.