Microsoft's and 343 Industries' Halo 5: Guardians tops the charts in the UK, as it goes on to sell more than Halo: The Master Chief Collection in its first week.

According to the sales monitoring company Chart-Track, Halo 5: Guardians is currently the number one selling game in the UK. The most recent entry in Microsoft's sci-fi shooter series turned out a solid performance during its launch week that hit 50 percent better sales than Halo: The Master Chief Collection did during its initial days of availability.

Not only did Halo 5 best the only other Xbox One exclusive in the franchise thus far, but it also earned 50 percent more than Assassin's Creed Syndicate did when it first went on sale last week, with the action-adventure game falling to second place on the charts. While it's definitely impressive that the Master Chief-centric title racked up bigger figures than the multi-platform Syndicate, it's also worthy to note that Halo 5 launched on a Tuesday, whereas Ubisoft's open world title released on a Friday, so 343 Industries' newest FPS had three days' advantage.

The Chart-Track figures for Halo 5 do not include download sales, nor did the statistics compare the performance of 343 Industries' most recent release to other numbered titles within the franchise. Taking those facts into consideration, it's safe to assume that Halo 5 didn't match up to Halo 4's showing during its first week, as it went on to become Microsoft Games Studios' top-selling title of all time in the United States.

Due to the brand recognition associated with Halo 5, as well as its positive critical reviews, the title's premier entry on the charts shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. However, it remains to be seen as to whether or not the Xbox game's T-rating actually had anything to do with sales, as Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg would have people believe.

Regarding the rest of the sales figures, WWE 2K16 made a decent debut on the UK charts, as it entered at number four, while Minecraft: Story Mode took the fifth spot. As far as other new entries go, the console port of Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition made an appearance at number 37. Furthermore, the front half of the top 10 contained relatively new releases for the most part, while a couple of the latter slots were comprised of older titles such as Grand Theft Auto 5 and Watch Dogs.

Although Halo 5 is resting comfortably in the lead for UK sales at the moment, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 coming out this Friday, Microsoft's sci-fi shooter will most likely take a tumble on the charts, especially with a Nielsen report claiming Treyarch's title to be the most anticipated game of Fall 2015. Plus, Bethesda's highly vaunted Fallout 4 is set to drop next Tuesday, so Master Chief and Agent Locke might need to start making some room for the two heavy hitters.

Halo 5: Guardians is available now exclusively for the Xbox One.

Source: Chart-Track (via VG 24/7)