Halo games in order: Chronological and release The Halo series' timeline can be hard to follow, so we've put together a complete list of every Halo game in order, both by release date and chronologically.Tom West Published 21 Dec 2023 FollowtopicsXbox Series X|SArticleTom West Master Chief has been the poster boy for Xbox since the original console launched in 2001 and his humanity-saving exploits are known universally. Not all games in the Halo franchise feature the big green guy, however, and with several spin-off games slotting in between the mainline entries of the series, it can be difficult to know where to start. Interestingly, other than the first Halo Wars and now Halo Infinite, each Halo title is set within the same futuristic decade, so following humanity's war against alien forces feels familiar no matter the game you're playing.Take a look below to see the Halo games in order of their release date, followed by a more detailed chronological timeline. All but one of the Halo games are playable on Xbox and Xbox Game Pass, with the vast majority of them (Halo 1, 2, 3, 4, Reach, and ODST) being playable in Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Spartan Strike is only playable on PC, but it is still in Game Pass.Halo games in release orderChronologically, most Halo games happen over the course of a decade, with each game taking place in a specific year (though many of them happen in the same year, 2552, as that's when the majority of the Human-Covenant war takes place. This can make keeping track of the proper timeline order tricky. Not worry though, we've got you covered.Of course, a franchise as large as Halo has a plethora of books, comics, and TV shows thrown into the mix, but for the purpose of this list, we're only including the 12 games.Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)Halo 2 (2004)Halo 3 (2007)Halo Wars (2009)Halo 3: ODST (2009)Halo: Reach (2010)Halo 4 (2012)Halo Spartan Assault (2013)Halo: Spartan Strike (2015)Halo 5: Guardians (2015)Halo Wars 2 (2017)Halo Infinite (2021)Halo games in chronological orderUnlike the century-jumping Assassin's Creed timeline, Halo tends to stick with a single decade for its games, the 2550s, with only two games stepping out of that timeframe. Whether humankind is battling it out with the Covenant, Banished, or Flood, each game is linked closely with the timelines of the other games in the series, which makes a run through all 12 games a fairly smooth and tight-nit experience... once you know where to start. Halo Wars (2531)Halo Reach (2552)Halo: Combat Evolved (2552)Halo 2 (2552)Halo 3: ODST (2552)Halo 3 (2552 - 2553)Halo Spartan Assault (2554)Halo 4 (2557)Halo: Spartan Strike (2552 - 2557)Halo 5: Guardians (2558)Halo Wars 2 (2559)Halo Infinite (2560)How to play through the Halo games in timeline order:1. Halo Wars (2531)Release Date: February 27, 2009Developer: Ensemble StudiosPlatforms: Xbox 360 (Definitive Edition: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC)Halo Wars is an anomaly in the tightly grouped timeline of the other ten games, as it's set 21 years before Halo: Combat Evolved, the first game to launch in the series. It's also a superb real-time strategy game, which once again places Halo Wars outside of the general Halo theme — which is predominantly focused on the first-person shooter genre — even though the first Halo game was envisioned as an RTS by Bungie.This spin-off is set in the early part of the Human-Covenant War and sees the United Nations Space Command's (UNSC) Red Team of elite Spartan-II soldiers take on the Covenant, an alien collective threatening to destroy humankind, on the planets of Harvest and Arcadia in 2531. Operating off of the UNSC warship, Spirit of Fire, Red Team soon discovers that the Covenant is after an installation built by an ancient civilization known as the Forerunners and swiftly attempts to stop the mounting threat.Alongside the original release, there was a definitive edition launched in 2017 alongside its sequel, Halo Wars 2. 2. Halo: Reach (2552)Release Date: September 14, 2010Developer: BungiePlatforms: Xbox 360Although it's the sixth game to launch in the series, Halo: Reach is a direct prequel to Combat Evolved, and playing in chronological order, this will be your first foray into the FPS genre. Also, somewhat confusingly, Reach is the first game chronologically that was developed by Bungie, but also the final Halo game Bungie made before splitting from Microsoft to make Destiny.Halo: Reach is set in 2552, 21 years after the events of Halo Wars and sees us playing as Noble Six, a member of the UNSC's Noble Team Spartans, who become locked in a bloody battle with the Covenant on the Earth-like planet called Reach. Acting as a UNSC's primary military hub, a Covenant invasion of Reach threatens the future of humanity, but Noble Team's actions in the campaign are the reason the UNSC warship The Pillar of Autumn is able to escape the planet and make it to a Halo ringworld. This takes us right into the original Halo, our first adventure with Master Chief and his AI companion Cortana, as the pair attempt to turn the war in humanity's favor. 3. Halo: Combat Evolved (2552)Release Date: November 15, 2001Developer: BungiePlatforms: XboxFrom Bungie's final game in the series to its first, Halo: Combat Evolved was the hallmark of an entire generation when the original Xbox console was released, and it's the reason we're able to write such a robust list of Halo games today.Set immediately after the events of Reach, Combat Evolved keeps us in the year 2552 but puts us in the very big shoes of John-117 aka Master Chief, who wakes up on The Pillar of Autumn following a Covenant attack. After the ship crash lands on the Halo ring, Chief soon learns that the ring is an old Forerunner weapon designed to destroy a parasitic entity known as the Flood, but can be used by the Covenant to obliterate all sentient life. The ensuing fight sees Chief and Cortana come face-to-face with the Flood when attempting to take control of the ring, before they are forced to destroy the installation and hightail it to Earth with a warning about an impending Covenant invasion. 4. Halo 2 (2552)Release Date: November 9, 2004Developer: BungiePlatforms: Xbox and PCOnce again picking up immediately after the events of its predecessor in 2552, Halo 2 sees Master Chief and Cortana make it to Earth following the destruction of the Halo Ring. Alongside Chief, we also get a chance to play as The Arbiter in this installment — a disgraced Covenant Elite who turns his back on the Covenant after learning of the true purpose of the Halo rings.Halo 2 sees Master Chief and The Arbiter meet in the depths of another Halo ring, Installation 05, after quelling the Covenant invasion of Earth. Deep within the ring, the pair meet the Gravemind, a Flood creature that convinces The Arbiter that the Covenant's teachings are a lie and sends the unlikely pair on a mission to stop the Halo's activation.The best way to play Halo 2 (and to be honest, every game that's in it) these days is via Halo: The Master Chief Collection. 5. Halo 3: ODST (2552)Release Date: September 22, 2009Developer: BungiePlatforms: Xbox 360Halo 3: ODST is a prequel to Halo 3 but is set during and after the events of Halo 2, and some of Halo 3. It was initially supposed to be a small project to fill the gap between Halo 3 and Halo: Reach but soon became a full-scale game of its own.As another spin-off game, we don't play as Master Chief here and instead embody an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) during the Covenant's invasion of Earth. Controlling a soldier known as Rookie, we're tasked with scouring the city of New Mombasa for our missing squadmates after the Covenant ship High Charity jumps into slipspace, annihilating the city in its wake. After learning about a biological supercomputer used by the Covenant, Rookie and his squadmates attempt to steal it away from the enemy for the UNSC. 6. Halo 3 (2552 - 2553)Release Date: September 27, 2007Developer: BungiePlatforms: Xbox 360Set immediately after Halo 2 and straddling the events of ODST, Halo 3 sees us continuing the fight towards the end of 2552 and into 2553. It's also the last game chronologically we'll play from Bungie, as the remaining mainline entries were developed by 343 Industries.Halo 3 brings the original Halo trilogy to a close, showcasing the final battle of the Human-Covenant War. The beginning of this installment sees Master Chief running solo without Cortana for a while, but once again humanity's existence is hanging in the balance. Not only is the Halo ring activated in Halo 2 threatening to wipe out all sentient life from a large corner of the universe, but the parasitic Flood descends on Earth. While humanity wins the day, Chief and Cortana are left stranded in deep space aboard the Forward Unto Dawn. The trilogy comes to a close with Chief saying, "Wake me when you need me." 7. Halo: Spartan Assault (2554)Release Date: July 18, 2013Developer: Vanguard Games / 343 IndustriesPlatforms: Windows Phone 8 and PCAlthough it originally started life as a mobile game, Halo: Spartan Assault later arrived on console, and was the first twin-stick shooter developed for the franchise. Canonically, Spartan Assault is played by human soldiers reliving the battle via a simulation sometime in the future but follows a series of events in 2554 between Halo 3 and Halo 4.We play as Sarah Palmer or Spartan Davis on the planet Draetheus V after humanity and the Covenant have signed a ceasefire. When a Covenant splinter group learns that Draetheus V is actually a Forerunner weapon, the faction led by the Sangheili Merg Vol attacks and activates the weapon, triggering a planet-wide evacuation. Our role as the two protagonists sees us holding back the Covenant threat to save the human populace, while also attempting to sabotage the weapon. 8. Halo 4 (2557)Release Date: November 6, 2012Developer: 343 IndustriesPlatforms: Xbox 360Following Bungie's split from Microsoft, Halo 4 was the first mainline entry developed by 343 Industries and shifted the series' focus from the Covenant to the Forerunners.Picking up four years after the events of Halo 3, Halo 4 takes us to the year 2557 as Master Chief is woken from cryosleep aboard the Forward Unto Dawn by Cortana. This installment sees Master Chief fight off a rogue faction of Covenant aliens before learning that Cortana is beginning to become unstable due to an AI sickness known as Rampancy. With the odds stacked against them, the pair travel across an unknown planet, visit another Halo ring, and learn of a brand-new threat to humanity: the Forerunners have returned. 9. Halo: Spartan Strike (2552 - 2557)Release Date: April 16, 2015Developer: Vanguard Games / 343 IndustriesPlatforms: iOS, PC, and Windows PhoneAs the sequel to 2013's Spartan Assault, Halo: Spartan Strike is another twin-stick shooter for the Halo timeline. Technically, Spartan Strike is set in two time periods, with the beginning of the game set in 2552 and the second part set during the events of Halo 4 in 2557. We've opted to place it here as the final part of the game lines up better with Halos 4 and 5.Spartan Strike opens with the Covenant invasion of New Mombasa and follows a group of UNSC soldiers who secure a Forerunner artifact called the Conduit. After the Covenant ship High Charity devastated the city when entering slipspace, the Conduit was lost. Its signal is picked up years later on the Halo ringworld of Gamma Halo. The UNSC then races the new Covenant faction to secure the Conduit and stop their enemies from gaining control of Forerunner portals. 10. Halo 5: Guardians (2558)Release Date: October 27, 2015Developer: 343 IndustriesPlatforms: Xbox OneHalo 5: Guardians changes things up a bit as a mainline entry and shifts its focus from Master Chief in favor of bouncing between Jameson Locke's Fireteam Osiris and Master Chief's Blue Team, roughly eight months after the events of Halo 4With Cortana's Rampancy gaining traction, the AI has gone AWOL, and Master Chief, along with Blue Team, is in pursuit of his missing companion. Fireteam Osiris, however, has been tasked with tracking down the Chief for UNSC's command after his loyalty is called into question. Things take a turn for the worse in this installment when Cortana gains command of all AI and computer systems in an attempt to "save humanity." 11. Halo Wars 2 (2559)Release Date: February 21, 2017Developer: Creative Assembly / 343 IndustriesPlatforms: Xbox One28 years after the events of Halo Wars, Red Team awakens from cryosleep on the Spirit of Fire in the year 2559 to face a new threat, setting the tone for the next mainline game entry, Halo Infinite. Ensemble Studios didn't return for this installment, and Halo Wars 2 was developed by the legendary RTS studio, Creative Assembly.After resting in cryosleep and missing the remainder of the Human-Covenant War, Red Team arrives at the Ark unaware of its power to control the Halo rings. As they investigate the strange installation, the team comes into contact with The Banished, led by the fearsome brute Atriox. Believing that they're the last stand between The Banished and humanity, Red Team digs in for a fight. 12. Halo Infinite (2560)Release Date: December 8, 2021Developer:343 IndustriesPlatforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PCThe most recent installment of the franchise, Halo Infinite takes us out of the 2550s and into 2560 to battle it out with The Banished. While 343 Industries returned to a Master Chief-focused game this time around, it also experimented with a semi-open world, a grapple mechanic, and free-to-play multiplayer.After Red Team's encounter with The Banished in Halo Wars 2, Atriox and his band of brutes return as a threat to humanity in Halo Infinite, along with a new entity known as the Endless. With an AI replica of Cortana and a UNSC pilot by his side, Master Chief travels to Zeta Halo in his hunt for the now very-rampant Cortana, waging war on The Banished as he goes. Xbox Series X|SXbox OneWindows Written by Tom WestTom has been playing video games since he was old enough to hold a controller, experimenting with a number of systems until he eventually fell in love with Xbox. With a passion for the platform, he decided to make a career out of it, and now happily spends his days writing about that which he loves. If he’s not hunting for Xbox achievements, you’ll likely find him somewhere in The Elder Scrolls Online or fighting for survival in Battlefield.