It’s a sad day for Halo fans after it was announced that the Halo Championships Series (HCS) would soon be ending its support for Halo Infinite Esports. An Esports Lead for Halo Waypoint, known online as Tashi, made a post detailing the decision to completely move on from Halo Infinite by the end of 2026. This post precedes the Halo World Championship in October, which now may be the last opportunity for fans to witness competitive play for Halo Infinite on the world stage. Fans were saddened by the news and were left speculating about what the future would hold for the classic Xbox series.
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In a July 25th post, Tashi iterated that some support for Halo Infinite would continue into 2026, but the game will officially be retired after the 2025 Halo World Championship.
“Over the next few months, the HCS will host the 2 planned Majors as well as the almost sold out and highly anticipated Halo World Championship on October 24-26. Once a world champion is crowned in October, the HCS will be retiring Halo Infinite from Official HCS Competition,” wrote Tashi. “This means we will still support Halo Infinite and the tournament scene in 2026, but HCS will be moving on from Halo Infinite for official competition following this year’s Halo World Championship.”
Tashi celebrated the way Halo Infinite catapulted the Halo Esports scene into the spotlight and thanked everyone involved with its success. According to Tashi, Halo Infinite was the “longest a single Halo esports title has held major competition.” Tashi confirmed that official HSC competitions won’t be coming in 2026.
“So, when will Official HCS competition return for a new title? While we look forward to the day, it will not be in 2026,” wrote Tashi. “As always, we will keep the community up to date with the latest and expect another update from us on that front at some point late next year. On behalf of the HCS team and the whole studio, thank you. We hope you’ll join us for these few historic months of Halo Infinite HCS competition!”
Esports groups, players, and fans responded to the post with bittersweet emotions, thankful for the journey but uncertain about what is to come.
With the future of competitive Halo now up in the air, the Halo World Championships in October would be the perfect opportunity for Halo Studios to announce a new title. 2026 is also the 25th anniversary of the release of the original Halo, so there are sure to be big announcements coming soon, regardless.
Back in October, Halo Studios announced that it had multiple Halo projects already in development and that it was entering a “new dawn” with a switch to Unreal Engine 5, stating that all future Halo games would utilize it.
Recent rumors have sparked speculation among fans that a new Halo release is forthcoming in 2026. In June of this year, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer vaguely teased during an Xbox Games Showcase that in 2026, there will be “the return of a classic that’s been with us since the beginning.”
Also in June, Tashi published a post teasing that those wanting an “official scoop” for upcoming Halo Studios projects “won’t want to miss” the Halo World Championship this year. Hopefully, there will be good news for Halo fans sooner rather than later as they gear up to celebrate the game’s 25th anniversary.
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