Even with Halo Infinite launching later this year, 343 Industries has no intentions of ending support for Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Despite completing the compilation with the release of Halo 4 in November 2020, 343 has been supplying it with entirely new content and technical updates. Recently, the studio confirmed it was expanding mod support with new tools, and now it has said it's investigating into increasing the player count.
Currently, multiplayer matches in the Halo series have only ever allowed for a maximum of 16 players. During an official Xbox Twitch stream, one Sean Swidersky, a producer at 343 Industries, said that the studio is looking into going beyond that number in the future. His comments were clipped and shared via Twitter by Halo content creator Mint Blitz. Given his choice of words, it doesn't sound like it's an absolute guarantee, but it is something the team would like to do. Swidersky even suggests possibly increasing the player count to as high as 40 or 60 maximum.
There are, of course, difficulties which 343 would need to overcome. For starters, an increased number of maximum players would effect performance and, considering none of the Halo series' maps were designed for numbers as high as what Swidersky suggests, many of them would likely be exempt from such a feature. It's also unclear if the option for more than 16 players in a single match would be a matchmaking option anyone can partake in or be strictly relegated to custom matches.
If the feature ever is implemented, it possibly won't be for quite a while, especially since 343 will be rather focused with supporting the multiplayer for Halo Infinite. While there are still loads of unanswered questions surrounding that game's single-player campaign, E3 week saw Microsoft and 343 show the first bits of multiplayer footage, as well as plenty of details regarding what it will feature.
For instance, Big Team Battle will return as a playable mode. However, the big difference is that Halo Infinite's take on the mode will bump the player count to 24, pitting two teams of 12 against each other. If The Master Chief Collection ever does manage to increase its own player count, it's probably safe to assume that this will carry over to Infinite as well, since it'd be weird if the older titles boasted such a feature while the newest release lacks it.
Massive player counts for multiplayer matches have certainly become quite popular over the years, possibly thanks to the rise in battle-royale games like Fortnite, which can contain up to 100 players at once. Recently, EA announced that its upcoming Battlefield 2042 will offer 128-player lobbies on PC and next-gen consoles.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is available on PC and Xbox platforms.