Halo Infinite added a Halo Fest Showcase playlist to matchmaking on November 3, 2026, with all 10 finalist maps from this year’s Halo Fest Forge Contest, the official Halo Waypoint site announced. Every map in it was built by players in Forge, the game’s map editor, and each one runs in two to four Arena modes.
The Details
The playlist is live now in Halo Infinite’s free-to-play multiplayer on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. These are the 10 maps and the modes each one supports:
- Abundance: CTF, King of the Hill, Strongholds, Slayer
- Bits and Pieces: CTF, Slayer
- Cascade: CTF, Oddball, Strongholds, Slayer
- Eulogy: CTF, King of the Hill, Oddball, Slayer
- Hierarch: CTF, King of the Hill, Slayer
- Sanctum: CTF, King of the Hill, Strongholds, Slayer
- Shade’s Promise: CTF, Strongholds, Slayer
- Sluff: CTF, King of the Hill, Slayer
- Sojourn: CTF, King of the Hill, Strongholds, Slayer
- Unconveyed: CTF, King of the Hill, Oddball, Slayer
All of the modes are the Arena versions. Unconveyed is an altered take on the finalist map Conveyance, with its conveyor belts made static “for a better player experience,” the post says. Each map also has a Halo Waypoint page where you can bookmark it for custom games. The post gives no end date for the playlist.
What This Means for Players
Operation: Infinite in November 2025 added two new maps and was billed in the game’s own announcement as “Halo Infinite’s last planned multiplayer update.” Since then, new content has come in smaller pieces, such as May’s Firefight: Gauntlet mode, so 10 maps in matchmaking a year later is a welcome surprise, even though every one of them comes from the community rather than the studio.
The timing is about Halo Fest. Halo Studios says it will celebrate the Forgers and “reveal the final results of the Halo Fest Forge Contest” at the event, so playing the finalists now is the way to pick a favorite before the winner is named. It also lands in a busy stretch for the series: Xbox moved Halo under Activision in its September reset, and the final Canon Fodder said Halo Studios still intends to finish its next novels. If Halo Fest has you looking at the older games again, our Halo games in order guide covers where to play each one today.
When and Where
- Halo Fest Showcase playlist: live now in Halo Infinite matchmaking (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC).
- Halo Fest 25th anniversary concert: December 11 at Benaroya Hall, Seattle, from 7:00 PM PT (10:00 PM EST).
- Halo Fest: December 12 and 13 at the Arch Building in the Seattle Convention Center, per Halo Waypoint.
Source: Halo Fest Showcase Playlist, Halo Waypoint, November 3, 2026, also posted on Steam.