Then Halo 3 lost to MW1 (released in 2007), and MW2 (released in 2009) in XBL activity in 2009. If Halo 3 was released Nov 6. 2012, it would probably be getting 4-5th place, maybe even worse.

yeah. I played some Halo 3 last week and just tonight. It's still hanging on as a playable game but sadly I feel it's time coming even nearer to an end. I played some this night and had way more unbalanced and laggy matches than I ever witnessed in my Halo 3 playing of 6 years. It was literally the worst night I ever experienced and that part sucks because as you said this game used to be at the top. Everyone moved on to crappier games and like sheep are never coming back because to them for some dumb reason a 'new' game is 'better' even though in reality 95% of the games that have come out after Halo 3 are total garbage when compared to Halo 3's quality. Especially the 'new' halo games that aren't even a fraction of what a real classic Halo game is like.