
When you talk about sci-fi games, it is hard not to mention the Mass Effect series, which has an excellent balance of gameplay, story, and art direction. The games rotate around the control of power between humans and alien civilizations and focus on the main character’s struggle to push back the Reapers trying to destroy the Milky Way. This series has been around since the ancient times of 2007 and continues to be a massive influence on the gaming industry and its dedicated community. Over the years, the games have acquired their fair share of accolades, criticism, praise, and so much more, so we’re going to dive into some Mass Effect statistics and see how the series is doing now and where it is going in the future with new releases and additional content. If you’re a fan of gaming and want the latest scoops, check out what we have to say about the size of the video game industry!
Mass Effect key stats
This section is going to explore some of the most important statistics regarding the Mass Effect franchise since its conception and where it has gotten to over the years. This series can arguably be called one of the original sci-fi series out there, and one of the cornerstones of the sci-fi gaming genre in general. Its excellent setting as well as awesome gameplay have attracted a great number of fans, so we’ll see what they have to say about the game as well.
The Mass Effect series has sold over 20 million copies.
(Sources: VG Chartz, GameRant)
- The original Mass Effect sold 2 million copies.
- Mass Effect 2 sold 5 million copies.
- Mass Effect 3 sold 7 million copies.
- Mass Effect Andromeda sold 5 million copies.
Even though Mass Effect doesn’t have the cosmically high sales as other game franchises like Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, or Need for Speed, the franchise has still pulled some excellent numbers that suggest that it is massively popular in the military sci-fi genre. Mass Effect 3 is the most popular game in the franchise, and the numbers show that, but all of the games except for the original have sold almost the same as Mass Effect 3, so the hype for the games is relatively even.
Mass Effect 3 made over $200 million in sales.
(Sources: MoneyInc, Destructoid, Eurogamer, PC Gamer, TechTimes)
- Mass Effect 3 sold twice the number of copies as Mass Effect 2 did in its first month.
- Mass Effect Andromeda was a financial success, stated as being a driving factor in BioWare’s revenue.
- Mass Effect legendary Edition was also a success and sold better than EA had expected.
- The $92.3 million that the Mass Effect franchise is worth is regarding total sales of games as well as other media and merchandise, but even without that, the series has still raked in a tremendous amount of profit.
It is hard to find accurate data on the total games sold and total revenue for various companies because they do not have an obligation to reveal that sort of information, so we’re left to rely on speculation and calculations to gauge how successful the series is. In the case of Mass Effect, it is more than apparent that the most popular title is Mass Effect 3, which accumulated over $200 million in sales when it came out.
Mass Effect 2 was removed from the Xbox 360 marketplace.
(Source: NME)
- Microsoft decided that they would be delisting over 40 games.
- Microsoft has stated that it could no longer support these games due to technical and legal constraints.
- Players who have already purchased one of these games can download them freely.
- The same games that were delisted on Xbox 360 can still be purchased on Xbox One and Xbox series X/S.
This is something that is bound to happen sooner or later, while the Xbox 360 is still a decent console for playing older games, it is still dated and some games will lose their playability and the cost to keep them on the platform will become higher than the payoff. There are many issues that Microsoft has run into with these games, and while we are sad to see them go, take solace in the fact that you can still play them on some of the newer Xbox consoles.
Mass Effect 5 is confirmed, but it has no release date yet.
(Source: Rock Paper Shotgun)
- The game was first announced in 2020.
- BioWare has been gracing the community with a scarce flow of information over the last three years with messages and hints about what the game is about.
- Most of the information we have on the game so far comes from a short trailer and a promotional poster of the game.
- It is reportedly being made in Unreal Engine 5.
- The newest title is also being made by BioWare’s “veteran” team.
This global series received confirmation that a new game is being added to its collection, and fans are extremely happy because of this. Not only are we going to see the continuation of the Mass Effect franchise, but we are also going to witness its rebirth in the extremely powerful Unreal Engine 5. This is a massive step in the right direction for the franchise, and we can only imagine what this will lead to in the long run.
Someone made a video of Mass Effect with Michael Scott added to it.
(Source: Rock Paper Shotgun)
- Fans went crazy over the creative and high-quality edit.
- The creator of the video took iconic Mass Effect scenes and added the lovable The Office character to them.
- This shows how much the Mass Effect community likes to interact with media that fits the game.
- The lighting and general quality of the video are superb.
The Office is one of the most popular shows in history, and fans have gotten the opportunity to see the hilariously incompetent Michael Scott in some of the most iconic Mass Effect scenes in the series’ history. The editing was done masterfully, even capturing the lighting quite well and making it look like Michael was actually supposed to be in the scenes themselves.
Mac Walter, a veteran BioWare writer, is leaving the studio.
(Source: Destructoid)
- Mac was a writer and lead at BioWare for over 2 decades.
- In his LinkedIn post about his resignation, he did not state a reason, but it is implied that he would be working on other projects.
- The first game that Mac worked on was Jade Empire, after which he moved to Mass Effect and stayed with the series to the end.
- The last game he worked on was the upcoming Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.
- Mac Walter was not the only BioWare veteran to leave the studio. Others that have left include Matt Goldman, Mark Darrah, and Casey Hudson.
This was a bit hit to BioWare because Mac was on the team for over two decades and produced some of the best content BioWare has ever seen. He was a lead on multiple projects and worked with the team to deliver all of their projects on time. Even though the studio lost some of its most important members, the veteran team is still working on Mass Effect 5 and we’re sure that the game is still going to be excellent.
Mary DeMarle was added to the team working on Mass Effect 5.
(Source: Destructoid)
- She used to be a writer for the Deus Ex series.
- Her position at BioWare will be Senior Narrative Director.
- Mary DeMarle is a prolific and prestigious writer that brought the Deus Ex series to life through her excellent writing.
- She has also worked on the Guardians of the Galaxy game, which was very popular in the gaming community.
As much as the studio lost in Mac Walter, it gained the same in Mary DeMarle, an incredible writer that played a major role in making Deus Ex what it is today, and the same is expected of her for the upcoming Mass Effect 5. There isn’t much more to say for Mary other than the quality of her work is apparent when you play Deus Ex, and we expect Mass Effect to be an even greater story.
Mass Effect user stats
This section is going to take a look at some of the accomplishments that the Mass Effect community has made throughout some of the games. With millions of players and even more things to do, there are a lot of numbers to go through. Since the Mass Effect series is essentially an ARPG series, there are a lot of choices that players can make, and the different choices that players have made across all of the games are quite interesting.
68% of Mass Effect Legendary Edition players chose the male version of Shepard.
(Source: IGN)
- 40% of players chose the Soldier military specialization.
- 21% of players chose the Vanguard military specialization.
- 15% of players chose the Infiltrator military specialization.
- 11% of players chose the Adept military specialization.
- 8% of players chose the Sentinel military specialization.
- 5% of players chose the Engineer military specialization.
- 52% of players chose the Earthborn pre-service history.
- 44% of players chose the Survivor psychological profile.
- 60% of players rescued Ashley on Virmire.
- 94% of players made sure that Wrex survived the Virmire mission.
- 93% of players saved the Rachni Queen.
- 67% of players killed the Reaper Breeder Queen.
- 96% of players cured the Genophage.
- 96% of players pardoned Tali.
- 68% of players answered the reporter’s questions by punching her in the face.
There are, noticeably, no total gameplay numbers for this information, but all of the numbers are regarding the choices that you can make. Right off the bat, we can see that fans clearly prefer the male version of Shepard to the female one, which is interesting because Commander Shepard is canonically neither male nor female and they are what you choose. All of the other statistics are fun to look through and compare to the next line of stats!
Mass Effect 3 players put 88.3 million hours of playtime in the game.
(Source: Digital Spy)
- 8% of players did not cure the Genophage.
- 64% of players did not meet Wrex during the campaign.
- 37.6% of players achieved 100% galactic readiness.
- 4% of players completed a playthrough on the Insanity difficulty.
- 39.8% of players earned a Long Service Medal.
- Liara was the most popular squad member at 24.1%.
- Vegs had the highest survival rate at 82%.
- 82% of players chose to play as the male Shepard.
- 27% of players chose to save the Quarians.
- 37% of players chose to save the Geth.
- 36% of players chose to save both.
- 3.8% of players shot Mordin.
- 58% of players let Garrus win the shootout at the Citadel.
- 10.7 billion enemies were killed in Multiplayer.
- The most-used single-player class was the Soldier with a 43.7% pick rate.
- 64.5% of players chose to play on the side of Renegade.
Here, we can actually see the total number of hours played on Mass Effect 3, and they are fairly impressive. Of course, the real number is much higher since this is the number of hours that players have logged in a specific, unknown period. Other than that, the percentages are fascinating because some of them are in direct contrast with the previous line, even though some of the choices are the same.
The Mass Effect series had over 4 million hours watched on Twitch in 2022.
(Source: SullyGnome)
- Mass Effect Legendary Edition has the most hours watched at 2.9 million.
- The least-watched game is Mass Effect 3 at 193,981.
- The entire series had 515,000 broadcasting hours in 2022.
- There were 325 viewers watching Mass Effect Legendary Edition on average.
The last line of stats we have for you is just some general information about how the Mass Effect series performed over 2022, and the results are pretty much what you would expect them to be, with Mass Effect Legendary Edition performing the best. This is expected because this edition of the games includes the trilogy so people do not have a need to watch individual games when they can have the full package. Nevertheless, the series has accumulated a relatively decent amount of hours watched, although it pales in comparison with newer games.
To sum up
And this is where our spacewalk into the Mass Effect world ends… at least until the new one comes out. It’s fascinating to see a series like Mass Effect establish itself in such a solid way as it did, and the traction that it has had in the gaming community is incredible. fans have stuck with the series through thick and thin, through controversy and success, and we are sure that they are going to swarm Mass Effect 5 whenever it comes out. We are happy to be able to provide you with this information and we hope that you are happy with what we had to say!
Sources
- “Mass Effect: A Sales History – News”. VG Chartz, 2012, https://www.vgchartz.com/article/250066/mass-effect-a-sales-history/
- “The Highest-Selling Games Developed By BioWare Ranked (& How Much They Sold)”. GameRant, 2021, https://gamerant.com/highest-selling-games-developed-bioware-ranked-how-much-sold/#mass-effect—2-million
- “How Much is the Mass Effect Video Game Franchise Worth?”. Money Inc, 2020, https://moneyinc.com/how-much-is-the-mass-effect-video-game-franchise-worth/
- “Mass Effect 3 makes over $200 million in sales”. Destructoid, 2012, https://www.destructoid.com/mass-effect-3-makes-over-200-million-in-sales/
- “Opening month US Mass Effect 3 sales double ME2’s”. Eurogamer, 2012, https://www.eurogamer.net/opening-month-us-mass-effect-3-sales-double-mass-effect-2s
- “Mass Effect: Andromeda was a financial success”. PCGamesN, 2017, https://www.pcgamesn.com/mass-effect-andromeda/mass-effect-andromeda-sales-numbers
- “‘Mass Effect Legendary Edition’ Sold Better Than EA Expected– Here’s Why”. Tech Times, 2021, https://www.techtimes.com/articles/263848/20210806/mass-effect-legendary-edition-sold-well-heres-why.htm
- “Microsoft to remove ‘Far Cry 2’, ‘Mass Effect 2’ ‘CS:GO’ and more from Xbox 360 Marketplace”. NME, 2023, https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/microsoft-to-remove-far-cry-2-mass-effect-2-csgo-and-more-from-xbox-360-marketplace-3390542
- “Mass Effect 5 trailer, story, characters, and everything we know”. Rock Paper Shotgun, 2023, https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/mass-effect-5-release-date-everything-we-know
- “‘Mass Effect 3’ infographic reveals series statistics”. Digital Spy, 2013, https://www.digitalspy.com/videogames/mass-effect/a468372/mass-effect-3-infographic-reveals-series-statistics/
- “Happy N7 Day 2021!”. BioWare, 2021, https://blog.bioware.com/2021/11/07/happy-n7-day-2021/
- “Watch Michael Scott from The Office take a stab at running the Mass Effect crew”. Rock Paper Shotgun, 2023, https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/watch-michael-scott-from-the-office-take-a-stab-at-running-the-mass-effect-crew
- “Deus Ex writer Mary DeMarle on board for new Mass Effect”. Destructoid, 2022, https://www.destructoid.com/mass-effect-4-writer-mary-demarle-deus-ex-bioware-ea/
- “Mass Effect veteran Mac Walters leaves BioWare”. Destructoid, 2023, https://www.destructoid.com/bioware-mass-effect-veteran-mac-walter-leaves-news/
- “Mass Effect”. SullyGnome, 2023, https://sullygnome.com/game/Mass_Effect/365/summary
- “Mass Effect 2”. SullyGnome, 2023, https://sullygnome.com/game/Mass_Effect_2/365/summary
- “Mass Effect 3”. SullyGnome, 2023, https://sullygnome.com/game/Mass_Effect_3/365/summary
- “Mass Effect Legendary Edition”. SullyGnome, 2023, https://sullygnome.com/game/Mass_Effect_Legendary_Edition/365/summary
- “Mass Effect: Andromeda”. SullyGnome, 2023, https://sullygnome.com/game/Untitled_Mass_Effect_Game/365/summary