'Minecraft' passes 'Halo 4' to take the number 2 spot in Xbox LIVE activity

Microsoft revealed Wednesday the Xbox LIVE activity rankings for the week of Dec. 31. Unsurprisingly, "Call of Duty: Black Ops II" still sits solidly in the top spot. Surprisingly, "Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition" hopped over "Halo 4" to take over the number two spot.

We can only guess that the increase in "Minecraft: Xbox 360" activity on the Xbox 360 is due to a large number of new owners following Christmas. 4J Studios reported that the game passed five million purchases by Dec. 31. That puts it on par with the same number of people that own "Halo 4."

The news also makes us wonder how much interest was ginned up for the "Halo 4 Infinity Challenge." We didn't expect the Virgin Media sponsored tournament to boost play numbers past "Black Ops II" but we certainly didn't expect to see "Halo 4" drop from the number two to number 3 either.

Other notable movement on the chart includes "Trials Evolution" taking the number two spot as one of the top Xbox LIVE Arcade titles. It had to pass the popular and critically acclaimed "The Walking Dead" to get there. The release "Origin of Pain" DLC for "Trials" and the game's replayability probably played a large factor in that.

You can check out the complete list of Xbox LIVE activity for the week of Dec. 31 below.

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on UU’s)

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
  2. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
  3. Halo 4
  4. EA Sports FIFA Soccer 13
  5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
  6. NBA 2K13
  7. Skyrim
  8. Call of Duty: Black Ops
  9. Assassin’s Creed III
  10. Madden NFL 13
  11. Far Cry 3
  12. Battlefield 3
  13. Modern Warfare 2
  14. GTA IV
  15. Borderlands 2
  16. Gears of War 3
  17. Halo: Reach
  18. Forza Motorsport 4
  19. Forza Horizon
  20. EA SPORTS NHL 13

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)\

  1. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
  2. Trials Evolution
  3. The Walking Dead
  4. Castle Crashers
  5. Trials HD
  6. Retro City Rampage
  7. Guardians of Middle-earth
  8. Fruit Ninja Kinect
  9. Sonic Adventure 2
  10. Pinball FX2
  11. Peggle
  12. NBA JAM: On Fire Edition
  13. Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection
  14. Dungeon Defenders
  15. Counter-Strike: GO
  16. Plants vs. Zombies
  17. Super Meat Boy
  18. Fez
  19. Magic 2013
  20. REAL STEEL

Top Indie Games (Full Versions purchased)

  1. CastleMiner Z
  2. Murder Miners
  3. Xenominer
  4. CastleMiner
  5. Avatar Laser Wars 2
  6. Avatar Deathmatch
  7. Total Miner: Forge
  8. Shark Attack Deathmatch
  9. Avatar Farm Online
  10. The Impossible Game
  11. Avatar Legends
  12. White Noise: A tale of Horror
  13. Block World
  14. End of Days: Survivor
  15. Paintball War
  16. Avatar Laser Wars
  17. The $1 Zombie Game
  18. Miner Of Duty
  19. Zombie Death Quota
  20. Avatar Paintball

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Via: Major Nelson

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, Console Gaming Examiner

Scott is a life-long gamer living in the north Atlanta 'burbs with his wife and two children and loves to write about a variety of games on different platforms. You can reach him at jsgrill@gmail.com and follow him at the Video Games Examiners page on Facebook.

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