When you find yourself in a universe (or franchise) that's constantly expanding, filled with horrifying zombie aliens, a religious war, and ancient alien technology (and even more ancient-er aliens)... it's time to sit back, read a million books, and learn about the lore, universe, and fandom of Halo!

...And we couldn't be in better hands as Krysta of [Halo: Podcast Evolved](https://www.halopodcastevolved.com/) guides us through the vast lore that is in store!

## Episode Outline

### Fandom Facts

**History and Origins:**

> Halo is a military science fiction first-person shooter video game franchise created by Bungie and now managed and developed by 343 Industries, a subsidiary of Microsoft Studios. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and an alliance of aliens known as the Covenant. The Covenant, led by their religious leaders called the Prophets, worship an ancient civilization known as the Forerunners, who perished in combat with the parasitic Flood. The central focus of the franchise builds off the experiences of Master Chief John-117, one of a group of supersoldiers codenamed Spartans, and his artificial intelligence (AI) companion, Cortana. Other characters, such as Noble Six from Halo: Reach, are also introduced in the series. The term "Halo" refers to the Halo Array: a group of immense, habitable, ring-shaped superweapons that were created by the Forerunners to destroy the Flood. They are similar to the Orbitals in Iain M. Banks' Culture novels, and to a lesser degree to author Larry Niven's Ringworld concept.
>
> — [Wikipedia - Halo (franchise)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(franchise))

The game franchise has been running since 2001, and in that time over 65 million copies of the 13 games have been sold, grossing almost $3.4 billion (not counting the books, comics, live action films and miniseries, and anime).

**Search Data:**

By search data, [interest in the Halo franchise has been on a slow decline](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F04h6hv,%2Fm%2F0128442n,%2Fm%2F026wy8d). Comparing to other first-person shooters, it's possible that this is in part due to more competition. Interest in the game mostly spikes around the release of new games.

The top countries for Halo, by search volume, are as follows: Mexico, Columbia, United States, Australia, Canada, Guatemala, New Zealand, Panama, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom.

**Fan Demographics:**

This week, we have an assortment of data from different sources. The most comprehensive we found was this survey from [r/halo](https://www.reddit.com/r/halo/comments/1wwgas/halo_a_demographic_survey/) with over 1300 results:

- _Gender_: Mostly male (96.2%; female 3.8%)
- _Age_: Mostly 18-24 (61.8%); 15-17 (22%); 25-34 (14%)
- _Employment_: Mostly students (51%); Employed full-time (22.1%); Employed part-time (13.7%)
- _Ethnicity_: Mostly white / caucasian (79%); Spanish / Hispanic / Latino (6.7%); Asian (4.6%)
- _Marital Status_: Mostly single, never married (86.7%); Living with partner (6.2%); Married (5.2%)

Regarding age data, there is this thread from the [Halo Waypoint forums](https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/forums/90a6869bcf944c54a17102ac9e31da1a/topics/average-age-of-halo-players/395d83dd-0491-4ea4-867c-ae4966e637d0/posts) (number of participants is not stated):

- 1% - Child (5-8)
- 3% - Young Teen (9-13)
- 41% - Teenager (14-19)
- 41% - Young Adult (20-29)
- 13% - Adult (30-64)
- 1% - Senior (65+)

And a different source, [T3CHNOCIDE's Demographic Survey Results](http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:T3CHNOCIDE/Demographic_Survey_Results) (over 250 respondents), which seems to corroborate age and gender data:

- _Age_: Mostly 14-17 (50%); 18-21 (25%); 22-30 (12.5%)
- _Gender_: Mostly male (90%); other / no answer (7.5%); female (2.5%)

**Fanac Fast Facts:**

- Archive Of Our Own has [over 600 works related to Halo](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Halo%20(Video%20Games)%20*a*%20Related%20Fandoms/work...

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