Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "ARC RAIDERS SURPASSES 4 MILLION SALES IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS"

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

Linktree: ⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠Join The Normandy For Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here: ⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0K⁠Dive into ARC Raiders with Analytic Dreamz on Notorious Mass Effect. This $40 Unreal Engine 5 PvPvE extraction shooter from Embark Studios (ex-DICE devs) launched October 30, 2025, on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC (Steam/Epic), with full crossplay. Set in post-apocalyptic Italy's Rust Belt, raid topside for loot, battle deadly ARC robots, rival players in 30-min matches, and extract. Key mechanics: dynamic weather/events, noise alerts enemies, proximity chat for alliances/betrayals, safe box loot security, customizable skill trees (Combat/Survival/Scouting), Speranza workshops for upgrades. No classes—build your Raider. Progression: 20-40 hours core, 100+ with Trials/Expeditions. Monster launch: 4M+ copies sold <2 weeks (Nexon's biggest), Steam peaks 264K Day 1/482K Nov 16, 700K+ all-platforms. Steam 89-90% positive (61K+ reviews), Metacritic PC 86/PS5 84, OpenCritic 88. IGN/GameSpot 9/10: thrilling standard-setter. AI voice controversy (disclosed, trained on actors) drew Eurogamer flak; community shrugs. Quick patches fixed bugs, cut cosmetic prices. Roadmap: new maps (Stella Montis), ARCs, quests, snow, Battle Pass, Dec reset. 50%+ players prefer co-op PvE; viral friendly moments. Analytic Dreamz breaks all stats, lore, builds—enlist now!Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It is time to get into a third-person PVPVE extraction shooter that may be game by the year. Shepard, just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on? Now, before you all get out, the pitchfork, safe to say that the game I'm referring to is called Arc Raiders. And not only is it a very interesting game that may enter the game with a year discussion, but let alone is an extraction shooter the main thing is that people are enjoying this so much that not only is it the fourth most play game on PlayStation not only is it the fourth most play game on steam and we're talking about currently but also it's the most play game on xbox

and the reason i dropped the bomb for that is because you know over here at notorious mass effect We try to keep it eight more than 92. And I have all the jokes in the world for how Xbox has been executing a lot of anti-consumer practices, in my opinion. As far as the game passed being raised by 50%, as far as the handheld being a million, a trillion dollars for no reason when the Steam Deck exists. So as far as Arc Raiders being a high-quality game, I'm just glad. that Xbox was actually able to get it on its platform without Steam's help. Now that being said, this is a sales and review roundup, of course, of Arc Raiders. And when we get into the game, Safe to Sales released October 30th of this year.

It is on a PS5 Xbox series X and S and PC as for Steam Plus Epic. So when you look at the price tag, that's also an intriguing factor as it's $40. to play the extraction shooter. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're probably saying to yourself, well, why I play Arc Raidus when I could play Fortnite for free? And that, ladies and gentlemen,

is the wrong thinking. You guys. See, that's the problem. Safe to say, Embark Studios, which is the developers, they gave us such a high-quality product that I'm not even mad at it being $40, because guess what?

It could have been 70s. So really, they give me more value for less as far as this particular game because as far as the gameplay loop, safe to say, because of the not being a real traditional single player campaign, I think the main progression could be from 20 to, not I think, I report, you know, research this. So it's estimated as far as the main progression to be 20 to 40 hours. But you can easily make this 100 hour plus game because of the multiplayer aspect.

you doing trials, expeditions, grinding with either by yourself, with a squad mate as far as duos, or you can run trio. Can you run? I don't know if you can run trios, actually. I think they just implemented duos. But when you get into it, safe to say one of the intriguing factors is playing with other raiders, such as yourself, and being able to team up with your friends and dive into this very interesting world.

Because guess what? The clankers. are back again. Shepard, just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on? Looking at the state of gaming and realizing that you're literally playing a game where you have the choice to team up with everybody you run across in the war against the clinkers.

But do people do it? Of course not. You guys. See, that's the problem. So, sticking to sales at the beginning of this, like, I want to start with sales. So when you look at the sales already talked about its current position, on Steam on PlayStation on Xbox but one of the main things I wanted to get into is of course four million units sold in 14 days is a phenomenal accomplishment but also

looking at the steam numbers as far as the all-time peak being just 20 hours ago so safe to say they're not slowing down anytime soon because it seems like it's been a consistent 400 plus as far as the 24 hour peak and if that keeps up I think this will actually have to be a contender for game of the year because you have to hear me out because of course I say all the time because you know my podcast being based on games and music that notoriously impact affect the masses that just because you sell a lot does not mean you make the highest quality and just because you don't sell a lot does not mean you make the most abysmal atrocious horrendous. All right. You get the point right. It doesn't mean the two don't correlate.

Sales do not correlate with actual quality. But for our graders, for it to be so high quality at a $40 price point, I think is actively pushing the gaming industry forward because of course, everybody thought that Battlefield and Call of Duty was going to be battling it out as far as the multi-player shooter aspect. But of course, I don't know why Counterstrike. Counter Strike 2 is just notoriously always number one on Steam. And people talk about Call of Duty on other platforms, but I don't know maybe because Counter Strike 2 maybe is only on PC. I don't know what it is about.

Counter strike 2 not being given the same amount of respect. Because PubG also is still in third place as far as the most play game on Steam. Counterstrike 2 is number one on Steam. So I don't know that I guess they just get excluded. But as far as games that came out today, or not today, this year, with Battlefield, with Call of Duty, and with Arc Raiders, safe to say, arc Raiders was the dark horse that ended up rising to the top because when you look at the comparisons as far as studios, you would have thought that Blackop 7 would have had the better marking strategy and have more players playing that specific game out the gate. But of course, you look at the charts and Arc Raiders is nowhere, I mean, Battle of Call of Duty, Blackop 7 is nowhere to be found. You guys. See, that's the problem.

But then you look at Battlefield, and that's technically the seventh most play game on Steam. And the overall 24-hour peak for that is almost cracking 300,000. It's right around 299,000. So basically I'm saying all this. to say that the competition is fierce in 2025. So for Arc Raiders to stand out amongst the pack as far as shooters that's been released this year and not only stand out, but also stand out amongst single player games, games that notoriously get nominated for Game of the Year, Arc Raiders, in my opinion,

is standing toe to toe with those type of games. Because guess what? I played it. Yes, sir. You know what I'm saying? Drop a bond for me. I ain't a lot to you. the boys been out here playing all the games possible

and when it comes to Arc Raiders I was thoroughly surprised because of course I played it with my cousin you know shameless plug analytic dreams video on Spotify to see my Arc Raiders gameplay but when it came to the game I completely understood it as soon as I finished a tutorial why people enjoy this type of game because playing by yourself

could be interesting as far as you tackling the mission aspect, but I'm not going to lie to you, playing with other people, whether you're role playing, whether you're making jokes, you're just hanging with the homies trying to extract. Because common misconception of extraction shooters, they automatically think it's like a battle reality, you're supposed to kill everybody. Funny enough, you could team up with anybody you run into as far as players. And y'all could get the same amount of loop, same everything as far as being able to

raid together as a squad like imagine you have three players in your squad and now you team up with another four player squad right and um now you got eight people running around because of course you know you have you other three players and the other four okay my fault i should do a math my fault so you have eight people now instead of the four really you don't have to treat it like a pvp type game but of course you know human nature people just going to turn on you regardless so really the battle against the clankers is the ultimate focal point in my opinion as far as the story so with that being out the way

the reason why I say that is because now when you look at it in the grand scheme of things it's so unique as a specific game playing with other people and enjoying the different outcomes that could happen because y'all all are doing things across the entire map that you could see when you hop into the specific lobby that it just makes it such an interesting world. You never know who you're going to run into.

And then of course, that is also accompanied by 50% of Steam players rarely engaging in PVP prefering the co-op survival. So once again, the war against the clankers is really the slogan, or I think should be the slogan for Arc Raiders, because a lot of people are out here going to war against everybody but the clankers. like the amount of savages on the different consuls because you know as far as the steam numbers it's reported that 50% of steam players rarely engaged in pvp so i'm thinking all of the savages may lie on console because why in the world are you out here trying to kill people and take the loot when y'all can work together against the robots right so um i never really got that aspect you know as far as my personal play through there were a lot of savages not going to

line to you but I was playing on console so as far as the steam atmosphere it seems like it's more friendly but anyways there's a lot of things you could do in the interesting world along with other players that you could team or not team up with that you can combat or not come back or not combat but the main thing is basically knowing that at the end of day is not a battle royale you're not technically against each other and y'all all could team up if you want to but of course the savages you know what they say one rotten Apple ruins the bunch I think it's Apple right but essentially that's basically what happens when you come to these savages They don't care that it could be a PVP a PVE type game and y'all could team up they rather just take your loot

So you asking them if they want team up and they basically saying who don't they do you know what I'm saying they could care less So anyways um one of the main focal points I did want to pinpoint is especially the AI voice debate because of course this had to get brought up in my discourse of Arc Raiders because the AI controversy is very interesting, right? And you're probably saying like, what do you mean by that? Well, apparently there's some MPC voices

that are user generated and trained on paid actors' performances to be eight more than 92 and the play devil's advocate it. The developers did fully disclose this to the actors. So really to me, it doesn't put it on the

developers. It puts it on the actors who chose to agree to this type of deal. Because guess what? This game so phenomenally successful that when they put out extra content, now instead of paying you for extra dialogue

for that extra content, guess what? You signed your rights. away. So a lot of people coming out who are now aware of this saying that it's unethical. But of course, it doesn't have any gameplay impact. It's really just a morality issue for the people, for the paid actors who basically sold the lifetime rights away for the AI to generate NPC lines for it. Right. So I think that's definitely an interesting discussion. It goes back to the point of what people would do for a dollar and you would be surprised the amount of people who would do things that does not benefit the future for others to benefit themselves as far as monetary value

you would be surprised what people would do what you know the whole saying is strange for a piece of change safe to say there's a lot of people who are showcasing those type of uh actions especially when it comes to the greater good of just actors in general they're I'd rather just throw it away for a quick paycheck. So anyways, I just wanted to touch on that because especially covering Arc Raiders as far as the sales and review roundup, I had to bring that up as that's one of the main issues that people are having, even though it doesn't have any gameplay impact whatsoever. As far as from morality side, I had to bring it up. So anyways, getting back into Arc Raiders, because we already went over the sales and how much has been generating as far as revenue and It's been doing fantastic, right?

Now I wanted to dive into the review roundup side of Arc Raiders. So IGN gave Arc Raiders a 9 out of 10 saying, quote, sets a new standard. And they basically says a complete blast. And then PC Gamer gave it an 85 out of 100, saying generally enjoyable, unpredictable, unpredictable encounters and then uh poly no no not poli game informer did give it an 8.5 at a 10 saying promising and it met expectations but that was the in progress review i don't know if it's more or less but it seems like everybody's enjoying it as game spot gave it a 9 out of 10 saying unpredictable thrilling and hopeful and then of course when you look at the global

When you look at the overall landscape of the review roundups, safe to say everybody's giving this game at least at 8 or 9 out of 10 as far as how they've been feeling about it, especially in the year of 2025. When you look at a lot of the shooters that come out and that are popular, they probably didn't come out this year. Like Delta 4th came out December 4th, 2024. PubG came out 2017.

Counter Strike 2 came out 2012 The battling get out With a lot of games Has been around for quite some time So that's the main thing that we now have to transition to Because it's success out the gate That's an objective fact But for Arc Raiders to hold this longevity

And to keep this player count of 200,000 to 300,000 I think that's the main focal point As far as how successful And how impactful will Arc Raiders be So that's one of the main things I was wanting to get into. Of course, when it comes to the overall gameplay loop for people who haven't played the game at all, just know you can play with a solo duo or squads up to three. And then, of course, the match length is as short or as long as you make it.

I think the longest it could be like 30, 40 minutes, I believe. But don't quote me on that. I think in general they try to focus on quick matches as far as being able to get in and get out with loot. because at the end of day, it is an extraction shooter. Like I keep saying, it's not a battle real. You do not have to shoot it out with any and everybody to win the specific objective. Because really your main objective is to loot weapons, gear, resources,

fight the clankers, which is the arc enemies, such as the drones, the crawlers, the bastions. I think that's how you said. The queens. And then to avoid slash engage rival raiders. And then, of course, you can extract via elevators and hatches which is what my PVE

point was about like this would be the game plan if somebody was trying to go for world peace but in arc readers if everybody just band together we really could run the whole map

against the robots but you know of course there's that one rotten apple in a bunch that could always turn on you and turn it into a savage and try to take everybody's loot at the last minute so one of the main things a lot of people like about the environment is the dynamic weather plus the world events such as the

storms and the harvest or queen events i think that's some of the main campaign type uh campaign-esque type of missions that you could go on the field uh fulfilled as far as going through an actual story so the proximity of chat the proximity chat is one of the main uh things that a lot of people enjoy especially with this being more of a experimental type of scenario where you never know what's going to happen the proximity chat let's just say you're going to run into a lot of interest in characters and then last but definitely not least they have skill trees which is combat survival scouting hybrid which you have different workshops in speranza which is your home base and you have gunsmith weapons refiner with materials and then

others for crafting slash repairs so when you look at no traditional can play a single player campaign when you look at the light quest that you could go on plus the mpc's safe to say this game is what you make it is who you play with and the overall unpredictability of this specific gameplay loop makes it to where a lot of people gladly will put 50 to 100 hours into this because of course the fun is basically exploring the map and there's so much attention to detail that that um arc raiders has you know shout out to embark studios that it keeps people hooked and there's no telling what the future could look like for arc raters because right now it seems as if it may actually be a contender of a contender for game of the year for game of the year

being an extraction shooter. So with that being said, click my link to you in my bio, let me know in one of my social medias. What do you think about Arc Raiders in general? As far as a game of the year contender, do you believe it should? And if you don't,

what's been your favorite game of 2025 and what's been your favorite shooter released in 2025? Has it been Call of Duty? Blackop 7, hasn't been Battlefield 6, or has it been Arc Raiders? Thank you.