It’s already been a week since Halo 3 has been out and Microsoft probably couldn’t be any happier right now. They get to send out press releases detailing their success and taunt the competition by saying things like “interactive entertainment will never be the same, with the launch of one title that has changed the way the world thinks about video games.”

But let’s have a look at what exactly Halo 3 has done for Microsoft and the Xbox 360 in the first week:

• biggest entertainment launch in US entertainment history
• fastest selling video game ever
• $170 million earned in first 24 hours in the US alone
• $300 million earned in the first week worldwide
• 2.7 million gamers have played Halo3 on LIVE
• 40 million hours of online gameplay, 4,500 years of continuous gameplay
• Xbox 360 console sales more than doubled
• hundreds of thousands of new Xbox LIVE Gold members

And I don’t think there’s any question that when the next weekly Xbox LIVE activity Top10 will be released, Gears of War will have to graciously step down and take the second place. Halo 3 came, conquered and is here to stay for a long time to come.

Bill Gates: “‘Halo’ is truly a cultural phenomenon, and the launch of ‘Halo 3’ is an important milestone for Xbox 360 and for video games as entertainment and as an art form. ‘Halo 3’ embodies our vision for the future of entertainment, where some of the world’s greatest creative minds will deliver a new generation of interactive storytelling.”