Updated Oct 22, 2026· 5 min read

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  1. Halo 3: ODST7.52 x 5.39 x 0.55 inches0.29 PoundsDVD-ROM
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  2. HALO: CAMPAIGN EVOLVED GAME GUIDE: The Complete Prep6 x 0.18 x 9 inchesLarge Print
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  3. Halo: The Rubicon ProtocolKindle eBook
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The best Halo game is Halo 3. It is the only entry that scores at or near the top of all three criteria this tier list weights — campaign design, multiplayer sandbox and lasting appeal — and it is still fully playable today through The Master Chief Collection on Xbox and PC. Halo 2 and Halo: Reach complete the top tier, Halo Infinite is the strongest modern entry but lands mid-table overall, and Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians sit at the bottom for most players.

Ranking criteria: what actually separates the Halo games

A tier list is only useful if the scoring is visible, so here is exactly how each game earns its number. Campaign and multiplayer carry 40% each because that is where most players spend their time; lasting appeal carries the remaining 20%, because a great game nobody can easily play is a worse recommendation than a slightly weaker one with working matchmaking.

Halo 3: ODST - Xbox 360 (Renewed)

Halo 3: ODST - Xbox 360 (Renewed)

Chosen because it specifies Xbox 360 (Renewed).

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HALO: CAMPAIGN EVOLVED GAME GUIDE: The Complete Prep Manual: Weapons, Vehicles, Enemies, Skulls, Co-Op & Everything You Need Before You Play

HALO: CAMPAIGN EVOLVED GAME GUIDE: The Complete Prep Manual: Weapons, Vehicles, Enemies, Skulls, Co-Op & Everything You Need Before You Play

Chosen because it specifies Vehicles and Enemies.

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  • Campaign (40%): level layout and pacing, enemy and weapon variety, encounter design on Heroic, and how well the story survives a replay. Points come off for corridors that outstay their welcome and missions that collapse on higher difficulties.
  • Multiplayer (40%): sandbox balance, map quality, spawn logic and whether anyone is still playing. Equal starts and map control matter more here than raw feature count.
  • Lasting appeal (20%): availability on current hardware, split-screen and LAN support, custom-game and mod scenes, and whether servers are still up.

These scores are editorial judgements about design, not measured benchmarks, and they describe each game as it exists now rather than at launch. Where a title improved or degraded after release, the current state is what counts.

Halo tier list: every main game ranked

Game Campaign /10 Multiplayer /10 Lasting appeal /10 Weighted score Tier
Halo 3 (2007) 9.5 9.5 10.0 9.6 S
Halo 2 (2004) 8.5 9.5 9.0 9.0 S
Halo: Reach (2010) 9.0 9.0 8.5 8.9 A
Halo: Combat Evolved (2001) 9.5 7.0 7.0 8.0 A
Halo Infinite (2021) 8.0 8.0 7.0 7.8 A
Halo 3: ODST (2009) 8.5 6.5 6.5 7.3 B
Halo Wars 2 (2017, spin-off) 7.5 7.0 6.0 7.0 B
Halo 4 (2012) 7.0 6.0 6.0 6.4 C
Halo 5: Guardians (2015) 5.5 7.5 6.0 6.4 C

The two Halo Wars real-time strategy games are ranked separately because they are a different genre; Halo Wars: Definitive Edition would land in the same B band as its sequel.

S tier: the games that still hold up

Halo 3 — 9.6

Halo 3 is the series’ high-water mark because it does the most things well at once. Its encounters are built around wide arenas and vehicle play rather than corridors, so Heroic and Legendary stay tense without becoming a slog, and its multiplayer sandbox — Battle Rifle, Energy Sword, equipment pickups, map control on The Pit and Guardian — is still the reference point competitive settings use. It also takes the only perfect 10 on the board for lasting appeal: it ships inside The Master Chief Collection, supports split-screen co-op on console, and its custom-game community never fully went away.

Halo 2 — 9.0

Halo 2 ranks second almost entirely on its multiplayer, which introduced online matchmaking, dual wielding and the Energy Sword lunge, and set the template every later Halo followed. The campaign is the weakest of the original trilogy — the Arbiter missions split the pacing and the ending is famously abrupt — but its level design is more varied than memory suggests, and Halo 2: Anniversary is the best-looking version of any Bungie-era campaign. It also plays the fastest of the classic titles in matchmaking, which keeps it in competitive rotation.

A tier: excellent, with one clear compromise each

Halo: Reach — 8.9

Reach is the best campaign Bungie made after Halo 3 and the best-looking game of that era. Armour abilities make the sandbox more flexible, though Armour Lock is the single biggest reason purists rank Reach’s multiplayer below Halo 2 and 3. Firefight is the strongest wave-survival mode in the series, and four-player campaign co-op makes Reach the easiest Halo to recommend to a group.

Halo: Combat Evolved — 8.0

The 2001 original still has the sharpest opening missions in the series, and the shield-and-health loop it established remains the core of every Halo since. It loses points on multiplayer — the pistol’s dominance and the lack of online play at launch mean most people now meet it through MCC — and on its back half, where The Library and the recycled corridor sections in Two Betrayals and Keyes test patience. Play the Anniversary version in MCC and toggle the remastered art off if you prefer the original look.

Halo Infinite — 7.8

Infinite has the best-feeling gunplay in the series and a genuinely good campaign built around the Zeta Halo open zone. Multiplayer is free-to-play, and a performance mode on Xbox Series X targets up to 120 fps per the game’s display settings. It lands in A rather than S because the open world repeats its side activities and the post-launch content cadence has slowed considerably — the servers are live, but treat it as a finished game rather than an evolving one.

B tier: good games with narrower appeal

Halo 3: ODST — 7.3

ODST trades Master Chief for a squad of troopers and a rainy, non-linear New Mombasa hub, producing the most atmospheric campaign in the series — a noir-tinged mystery with a jazz score nothing else in Halo sounds like. The compromise is multiplayer: Firefight debuted here, but the competitive mode is literally Halo 3’s, so there is no reason to pick ODST for PvP.

Halo Wars 2 — 7.0

Ranked as a spin-off. Halo Wars 2 is a competent console-first real-time strategy game with a solid campaign and the excellent Blitz mode. It sits in B purely because the genre mismatch is real — if you want first-person Halo, none of this applies.

C tier: the bottom of the list

Halo 4 — 6.4

Halo 4 tells the best story of the post-Bungie games, and its Cortana arc still lands. The level design leans on corridor shooting and scripted set pieces, though, and the multiplayer’s loadouts and ordnance drops removed the equal-starts principle that makes Halo feel like Halo. It is a campaign people finish once and a multiplayer people skip.

Halo 5: Guardians — 6.4

Halo 5 pairs the best multiplayer of the post-Bungie era — 60 fps, Spartan Abilities, a genuinely strong competitive mode — with the worst campaign, which sidelines Master Chief for most of its runtime and never delivers the Locke-versus-Chief conflict the marketing promised. It also has the lowest lasting-appeal score here because it is the one mainline entry that never came to PC and is not in The Master Chief Collection.

Which Halo should you actually play? A decision matrix

Your situation Play this Why Skip
Never played Halo, want the story Combat Evolved → 2 → 3 → ODST → Reach → 4, all in MCC Release order keeps story beats in the order they were written; roughly 45–55 hours total Halo 5’s campaign
Ten hours a week, want a competitive shooter Halo Infinite multiplayer Free-to-play, no campaign purchase needed, largest current matchmaking pool
N
Noah Parker
We compare specs, materials and verified owner reviews before a product earns a spot. Rankings are never paid.
Affiliate disclosure. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Prices accurate as of the date shown.
Halo Tier List: All Games RankedCheck price on Amazon

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