'Halo' TV Show Smashes Record For Its Streaming Service

Halo has had a stormer of a debut for streaming service Paramount+ with the corporation announcing that the show saw a record-breaking number of viewers tuning in to the epic sci-fi story.

As the service's most-watched series premiere globally in its first 24 hours of release, it's clear that controversy breeds curiosity. Perhaps the most divisive decision was that the Master Chief would be taking his helmet off, which is a stark contrast to the history and mystery that Bungie and 343 Industries created for the character.

Here's our Dine Abdou getting into the driver's seat of an actual Halo Infinite Warthog! Was it the best day of his life? I reckon so.

"You will see his face. For some people, it's been a moment 20 years in the making, and for other people it is something that feels very hard to imagine. We absolutely respect both sides of that fence," said Kiki Wolfkill, Halo producer and 343 Industries head of transmedia, in an interview with IGN. "But for the nature of this story, it felt really important to connect with the Master Chief in a different way, and that meant showing the face."

Additionally, I would like to point out that Paramount probably paid a lot of money for Pablo Schreiber to be cast as the character rather than any Tom, Dick or Harry off the streets of New York City. Of course that means showing off that it's snagged Emmy-nominated actor Pablo Schreiber. It's like that moment(s) in The Mandalorian where Din Djarin takes off his helmet even though it is explicitly against the tenets that he grew up with. Disney got Pedro Pascal, so it's going to show off that it got Pedro Pascal.

Anyway, the Halo TV show is yet to land in the United Kingdom, so it's possible that it will continue to charge forth with some impressive statistics for its viewership and critical potential. If you are subscribed to either Amazon Prime Video or Sky Cinema, you can pay for access to Paramount+, but the episodes will only be released in the summer of 2022 in the UK.

"This is now an opportunity for so many people who love this universe and who love this game so much to get to sit back and watch a story being told about the Master Chief, rather than being a part owner or a part creator of the story, which is what you are in the video game," said Schreiber in an interview with Deadline on his excitement for series two. "The story already has such scale, it's so epic and there's so many elements of hope involved in it. That level of authenticity and grittiness is really the key ingredient that, I think, brings it alive."

Topics: Halo, Xbox, Halo: Infinite, Halo TV series