In the last few weeks, Halocharts has experienced some noticeable data collection failures. For more than a few days last week, Infinity Slayer was missing from the charts and it's population figures were not included in the totals. Prior to that there were other data collection failures. It appears as if the recent problems were fixed but how would any of us actually know unless we followed both Halocharts and the source population figures published on Waypoint. I casually compare the two from time to time and that's how I knew there was problem last week. When the total population is quite high, losing 10,000 is easy to miss but when max population around 50,000 the deficit looks alarming.

Halocharts has been a good source for MM playlist populations but excludes a huge section of the total Halo population. Therefore it is a good indication of MM but not Halo 4's overall popularity.

Halo charts does not include Spartan Ops SP/co-op/MM, Campaign SP/co-op/MM, Custom multiplayer, Theatre or Forging. The playlist studies I completed for REACH last year strongly pointed to the non-MM population being 40-50% of the total online population (a number 343i does not publish for Halo 4 btw). It would be wrong for me to suggest Halo 4's current total online population has the same percentages as that that of REACH'S. I do assume it would be a substantial addition to the MM population.

I have come to the conclusion 343i was fully aware the population was going to be low. I cite the number of playlists as evidence. They have been very conservative in playlist expansion and have leaned to rotating and temporary playlist hoppers. I just hope they don't shit their pants now and start adding more playlists in a futile attempt to regain population. It probably won't work.