Halo Games in Order (2026 Guide)

The Halo games in order of release are: 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), and Halo Infinite (2021). In story order the sequence shifts, because Reach is a prequel and Halo Wars takes place two decades before anything else.

If you own The Master Chief Collection, six of those campaigns are already sitting on one install, which makes this the easiest era in Halo’s history to play the whole saga properly. Here is how it all fits together.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Halo Games in Order: Release vs Chronological

Release order gives you the cleanest experience for a first playthrough, because each entry was designed assuming knowledge of the last. Chronological order is: Halo Wars (2531) → Halo: Reach (July–August 2552) → Halo: Combat Evolved (September 2552) → Halo 2 (October–November 2552) → Halo 3: ODST (which overlaps with the events of Halo 2) → Halo 3 (November–December 2552) → Halo 4 (2557) → Halo 5: Guardians (2558) → Halo Wars 2 (2559) → Halo Infinite (2560).

The chronological route has one big problem: Reach ends on a note that only lands emotionally if you already know what Master Chief’s story becomes. Playing it first turns a devastating ending into a slightly confusing prologue.

The Bungie Trilogy Is the Core

Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3 tell one continuous story about the Covenant’s holy war, the Flood, and the ring worlds built to stop them. They also contain the series’ best sandbox design — the loop of two weapons, grenades, melee, and a recharging shield is still copied twenty-plus years later. Halo 2‘s split perspective between Master Chief and the Arbiter was controversial in 2004 and is now widely regarded as the smartest structural decision the series ever made.

Where ODST and Reach Fit

Halo 3: ODST puts you in the boots of ordinary Orbital Drop Shock Troopers with no shields, no Spartan strength, and a hub-based night-time city to explore between flashbacks. It runs parallel to Halo 2. Halo: Reach is the prequel, covering the fall of humanity’s most fortified colony weeks before Combat Evolved begins. Both are shorter than mainline entries and both are among the best-written games in the franchise. They also run beautifully on modest hardware via the PC port — see our best budget gaming PC guide for what actually clears 120fps in MCC.

The 343 Industries Era

After Bungie left, 343 Industries took over with Halo 4 in 2012, introducing the Prometheans and the Didact while giving Cortana’s rampancy a genuinely affecting arc. Halo 5: Guardians split the campaign between Master Chief’s team and Spartan Locke, leaned heavily into four-player co-op, and delivered the fastest movement in the series with sprint, clamber, and thruster packs. It remains the only mainline Halo campaign with no split-screen support, which cost it goodwill at launch.

Halo Infinite and the Open Structure

Halo Infinite arrived in December 2021 with a semi-open Zeta Halo map, the grappleshot, and a free-to-play multiplayer component. The grapple fundamentally changes traversal and combat — you can yank explosive fuel rods toward you, pull yourself onto a moving Banshee, or close distance on a Brute chieftain in a heartbeat. It is the strongest moment-to-moment shooting in the franchise, and the multiplayer rewards high frame rates, which is why our best gaming monitor for competitive shooters breakdown is worth a read before you climb the ranked ladder.

The Master Chief Collection Explained

The Master Chief Collection bundles Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, ODST, Halo 4, and Reach into a single package on Xbox and PC, with cross-play, unified progression, and remastered visuals you can toggle mid-mission. It is the single best value in the franchise and the correct way to play everything except Halo 5, Infinite, and the two Halo Wars games. Campaign co-op across all six is supported, so a spare pad is worth having — check our best gaming controller roundup for options that hold up over long sessions.

The Halo Wars Spin-Offs

Halo Wars (2009) and Halo Wars 2 (2017) are real-time strategy games rather than shooters, built by Ensemble Studios and Creative Assembly respectively. They follow the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire, first in 2531 during the early Covenant war, then in 2559 after the ship drifts to the Ark. Both feature genuinely well-produced cinematics and a control scheme that makes console RTS play work. Halo Wars 2‘s Blitz mode blends card-collecting with skirmish battles and is far better than it sounds.

Which Halo Should You Start With?

Start with Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary inside MCC. It is short, it establishes everything, and the visual toggle lets you flip between 2001 and 2011 presentation instantly. If you want to start with something modern, Halo Infinite works as a soft entry point since it deliberately re-establishes the premise. Audio design carries an enormous amount of Halo’s atmosphere and competitive information, so a proper gaming headset buying guide is a better first upgrade than a graphics card for most players.

What Comes Next for the Series

Halo Studios — the renamed 343 Industries — has moved development to Unreal Engine 5 and announced Halo: Campaign Evolved, a full remake of the original game planned for 2026 and, notably, releasing on PlayStation 5 alongside Xbox and PC. That marks the first time the franchise leaves Microsoft exclusivity. If you are planning a multi-platform setup for it, load times and storage will matter — see the console SSD upgrade guide — and for anyone capturing footage of a full-saga playthrough, our capture card buying guide covers what handles 4K120 without dropping frames.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Halo games are there in total?

There are six mainline first-person shooter campaigns — Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians, and Halo Infinite — plus ODST and Reach as major side entries, two Halo Wars strategy games, and several smaller spin-offs including Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike.

Should I play Halo: Reach first since it is a prequel?

Most fans recommend against it. Reach is designed as a tragedy whose weight depends on knowing the wider story, and it uses gameplay systems introduced after the original trilogy. Playing Combat Evolved first gives you the context that makes Reach’s ending genuinely devastating rather than merely bleak.

Is Halo Infinite a sequel to Halo 5?

Yes, though it deliberately skips over much of what happened immediately after Halo 5: Guardians. Infinite opens roughly eighteen months after a battle that is only explained through collectible audio logs, which was a divisive choice but does make the game far more approachable for newcomers.

Can you play the Halo campaigns in co-op?

Yes. Every campaign in The Master Chief Collection supports two-player split-screen and four-player online co-op, Halo 5 supports four-player online only, and Halo Infinite added network co-op after launch. The Halo Wars games also support co-op skirmish and campaign play.