'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