Microsoft's Halo 3 is only the UK's second fastest selling game ever. Analysis by sales monitor Chart Track has positioned it behind Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, despite Microsoft's shoot-'em-up being bought by one in three UK Xbox 360 owners during its first week on sale.

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Chart Track said 68 per cent of Xbox 360 software sales were Halo 3 during the first week the game was available in the UK. The PS2's GTA: San Andreas only gained 52 per cent of total UK game sales during its first sales week, back in 2004. However, the company said the PS2's installed base was around 6.6m owners at the time of GTA: San Andreas' release, while the Xbox 360's base is currently only around 1.4m in the UK.

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Sales of the new game did, somewhat unsurprisingly, help boost sales of Xbox 360 hardware to the highest level seen this year in the UK. This meant it topped Wii sales for the first time since week 13 of 2007.

The game's release, both in the US and UK, was marred by gamers' cries of scratched discs. It emerged that the Limited Edition Halo 3 box-set had caused their discs to be scratched during transport.

However, some gamers were a little miffed when an Aussie posted a video online of the same box-set containing plastic packaging foam between the game disc and the user guide, which stopped the disc from moving inside the pack.