What you need to know
- 343 Industries is removing the Last Spartan Standing mode from Halo Infinite matchmaking on Aug. 23.
- The mode is being replaced by Team Doubles and Ranked Doubles, a pair of 2v2 playlists.
- In-game, Halo Infinite estimates that Last Spartan Standing matchmaking will take three times as long to find games compared to other playlists, suggesting that the mode has not been popular. This may be why it's being rotated out.
Recently, Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries announced in a blog post that Last Spartan Standing, a battle royale-esque mode that released earlier in Season 2, will be removed from the game's matchmaking options on Aug. 23 to "help make room" for new playlists. From 11 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET that day onward, players will be unable to play Last Spartan Standing. The 2v2 Team Doubles and Ranked Doubles playlists will then go live three hours later at 1 p.m. PT / 4 p.m. ET.
Last Spartan Standing is considered the premier game mode of Halo Infinite Season 2, as it was the centerpiece of two of its main events and has been available since the season started on May 3. The developers even made it playable on all of the game's Big Team Battle maps in an update, which many players took as a sign that it would be sticking around. However, we now know that that is not the case.
Since the announcement, fans have questioned why the developers have chosen to replace Last Spartan Standing with the 2v2 modes instead of keeping it available alongside the new additions. If we had to guess, we'd say that it's probably due to a declining player count. At the time of writing, Halo Infinite estimates that you'll need to wait 15-30 seconds to find a match in most of its playlists. If you want to play Last Spartan Standing, though, you'll need to wait a full minute and a half before you can get into a game. This suggests that the mode isn't as popular as Halo Infinite's other offerings.
Ultimately, it's understandable that the developers would rotate Last Spartan Standing out of matchmaking in response to diminishing performance, though it's still unfortunate that Season 2's biggest mode isn't even staying available throughout its full runtime. One of the biggest criticisms that fans have about Halo Infinite is that it doesn't offer enough content variety, so it's a bummer to see an existing mode get removed as a new one arrives.
Would Last Spartan Standing become more popular if it got some updates and balance changes? It's impossible to say for sure, but it would be interesting to see how a refined version of the mode with significant tweaks based on player feedback would perform. Hopefully this isn't the last we'll see of Season 2's experimental free-for-all mode.
Halo Infinite is available now on Xbox and PC. Despite some of its issues, it's one of the best Xbox shooters on the market right now for fans of arena-style FPS combat, and since the multiplayer is free-to-play, there's zero barrier to entry. The campaign is fantastic, too, as it features exhilarating gameplay and an excellent story.
