the total number of players for the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta exceeded 1 million in the game's first 24 hours of availability, according to Microsoft.
In stats provided to blog site Kotaku the number of players on Monday, May 3 were put at 1,170,112, with 157,972,986 in-games kills recorded.
Microsoft has already claimed the online multiplayer demo to be the "biggest console beta ever". The beta is due to run until May 19 and the completed game is due for release this autumn.
A copy of 2009's Halo 3: ODST is required to access the beta, but over the coming weekend a subscription-based Gold Xbox Live account will not be needed. This will allow Silver subscribers to access the beta for free.