Microsoft is boasting that its flagship Xbox title Halo 4 sold $220 million in global sales on launch day, making it a bigger hit than the biggest movie opening in US history - 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.'

In a press release the company says that sales have already surpassed the 'The Avengers' box office total, which is so far the biggest movie of the year.

"We're thrilled that Halo 4 has emerged as the biggest US entertainment launch of the year," said Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios. "Thanks to the millions of fans worldwide who helped make this another record-breaking launch for the Halo franchise, Halo 4 is kicking off a strong holiday season and has become the must-have blockbuster experience of the year."

Microsoft says that the launch of Halo 4 propelled lifetime sales for the franchise beyond $3.38 billion. The game is also said to have eclipsed the record for the largest number of players in the history of the franchise, with over four million players in the first five days, playing Halo 4.

"Users spent a total of 31.4 million hours playing Halo 4, pushing the total number of gameplay hours across the Halo franchise well beyond the five billion mark," Microsoft said in a press release.

However, those numbers still pale in comparison to the numbers for the biggest video game release of all time, last year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which sold $775 million in sales in its first five days.

The sequel to that game, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, was released on Tuesday and could smash even that record.

Both games will be going head to head for the title of 2012's top-selling game.

The original Halo spearheaded Microsoft's first foray in videogames with its Xbox console in 2001. The latest in the series sees the return of the games original protagonist, Master Chief, after a five year hiatus.

The game was originally created by Bungie, which Microsoft acquired in 2000 but has since split to work independently again.

Halo 4 was largely the work of 343 Industries which took over three years to develop the latest installment of the hit franchise.