Microsoft said that Halo 3, its new video game, generated sales of more than $170 million (£84 million) within 24 hours of release, a record for first-day sales of an entertainment product.

The total easily exceeded that of Halo 2, which brought in $125 million in 2004, as well as takings of the most popular Hollywood films. More than 1.7 million copies of the game were preordered in America, Microsoft said, and 1.4 million people had gone online to play it since its release on Tuesday morning.

Microsoft is relying on Halo 3 to boost sales of its Xbox 360 console – the only unit on which the game plays – in its battle with the Nintento Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3. Analysts said that the debut was impressive, but that Microsoft needed to release games appealing to a wider audience to boost sales of its Xbox 360. The Xbox has sold 1.5 million units in Britain, but the PlayStation 2 has sold 8.9 million.

Piers Harding-Rolls, of Screen Digest, the research firm, said: “Sales of Xbox have hit a brick wall in Europe and this is the kind of game that can drive console sales.”

UK sales of Halo 3 are expected to be similar to its predessor, which sold 700,000 copies.

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