'Shadow of Mordor' Players Have Slain 5.65 Billion Uruks

Gamers are known to be a persistent and hardworking lot. This assumption seems to be on the money if you take a gander at the seemingly improbable numbers within the "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor" statistics. Warner Bros. Interactive has created an infographic showing just how committed gamers have been towards slaying Uruks.

Players have bagged a total of 5.65 billion Uruk heads across PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PlayStation 4 platforms according to Gamespot. To put this into perspective, that's nearly 80% of the world's human population. Incredibly, gamers took less than six months to achieve this mind-boggling kill count. Each player has averaged about 76 Uruk kills per hour.

If you think that's a lot of dead Uruks, it would be sobering to know that this number doesn't even include the additional 1.3 billion slain at the hands of Uruks themselves. This manner of Uruk fratricide can be attributed to "Shadow of Mordor's" unique Nemesis mechanic, which adds many interesting gameplay twists. One of those involves the ability to incite infighting between enemy factions.

The statistics released on the game's Facebook page reveal that 72 million players have died so far. The Nemesis system is one of the rare examples where player death is less of a punishment and, in fact, becomes an avenue for bonus missions and a chance to attain better gear. The Uruks who manage to slay player character get promoted and become unique and more powerful units. The focus then changes to exacting revenge. A total of 10.7 million players have successfully avenged their deaths, with a total of 95.6 million nemeses created over the past six months.

Domination is another crowning feature of the game, which allows the player to control Uruks ranging from lowly foot soldiers to mighty war chiefs. Over 200 million have had their will dominated by the protagonist Talion, the fallen Gondorian Ranger. Additionally, 7.3 million Graug's were controlled by players, which is an effective means to wreak even more havoc on large masses of enemies.

The weapon stats point to melee weapons being the tools of choice for gamers. At 60%, the sword has a clear majority over ranged combat (bow) and Wraith powers, which was employed by 20% and 3% of players, respectively. This isn't a surprise because "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor" is well known for its tight melee combat system and interesting stealth and parkour-based movement mechanics.

The highly successful game will soon be getting a DLC, where players will be able to duke it out with the Dark Lord Sauron himself. According to Cinema Blend, the DLC will be significantly more difficult than the base game itself thanks to tougher enemies with better AI.

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Official Shadow of Mordor – Forge your Nemesis Trailer (credit: ShadowofMordor YouTube channel)