Halo 5 sort of flew in under my radar, and I suppose I assumed it did the same for a lot of people; I feel like I never hear much about it. Boy was I wrong, however, as after this most recent free week promotion, the numbers are skyrocketing.
It wasn't just the free week, either, according to a Bungie employee on Reddit. He says that the numbers have been steadily increasing over the last few months, reaching the highest they have been since the blockbusting Halo 3.
It's always good to see when community-friendly events, like a free week for curious players, pay off in such spectacular fashion. Let's hope it encourages more developers to do things like that.
You can read the Reddit post here.