Halo Infinite has seen a large boost in players following the release of Season Five: Reckoning and the highly anticipated Forge update.
As reported by IGN, 343 Industries' first-person shooter has seen a rise in players on Steam recently thanks to the launch of Season Five on October 17. According to SteamDB statistics, the game had a steady number of players at around 7,000 for months, but the latest update saw the concurrent player count rise to over 18,000, making it the highest peak since the launch of Season Two: Lone Wolves, 17 months ago.
It's not just the release of Season Five that has caused the game to see popularity again. 343 also introduced some brand-new updates to the Forge toolkit, a feature that allows players to use the game's sandbox to edit maps and create their own game modes.
With the latest patch, Forge now has NPCs - friends and foes from the main campaign - that can be used to populate maps, including UNSC, Banished, and Forerunner units to create your very own PvE experiences.
It looks like players are having a ton of fun with the update, with some even going out of their way to recreate other games within the Forge, and they're seriously impressive (via GamesRadar+).
User DanTheBloke on Twitter showcased their newest creation - a Pokémon battle arena featuring NPC fighters on each side, who have their own hybrid Poké Balls containing aliens. The aliens even have health bars and the center of the arena features the iconic Pokémon logo stamped into the grass.
Another user on Reddit recreated the final mission from Halo: Combat Evolved, while another on Resetera turned the FPS into a MOBA-style game, explaining that they designed their build "over the space of 90 minutes and with zero experience of Forge coding".
It's fair to say that Season 5: Reckoning has been a success so far, with the latest Forge updates allowing even newcomers to try out the sandbox toolkit feature.
If you're just getting started with the series, here are the best Halo games ranked from best to worst, but if you're looking for something different, check out our picks for the best FPS games, as well as the best PC games available to play in 2023.
