Egad, humans have played 1,800 years of Mass Effect 3 in just 10 days. It still has an annoying bug , but hey, lord knows I've done my part. EA just released some numbers related to Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. Come inside for a full-screen image of the stats, and details on a "Challenge Weekend" in-game event BioWare is holding this weekend.

Click here for a full-screen image of the stats, which represent the aggregate worldwide data across all platforms. I'm surprised the class composition seems to be pretty even—I thought Soldier would be much more popular.

But hey, EA and BioWare aren't just releasing an horn-tooting infographic. Already underway is ME3's first multiplayer event, EA has announced. During the "N7 Challenge Weekend," which ends Monday 3/18 at 5 AM PST, you can unlock a unique supply pack, the Commendation Pack, by beating the Reapers (the hardest enemy group in the game right now, if you ask me) on Silver or harder. If the community kills 1 million Reaper Brutes collectively, everyone gets another unique pack. Here's EA's explanation:



"Any player who is part of a squad that beats the Reaper faction on Silver difficulty or better will unlock one Commendation Pack. This means that at least one member of the squad must be extracted at the end of the mission—this will earn all squad members the reward. Each player can earn a maximum of one pack and each pack contains a random N7 Arsenal Weapon. Originally only available as single-player weapons via the N7 Collector's Edition, these multiplayer variants will be exceptionally rare and are NOT obtainable through regular purchasable Reinforcement Packs. The Commendation Packs will contain one of the following guns at random: (1) N7 Crusader Shotgun, (2) N7 Eagle Pistol, (3) N7 Hurricane SMG and (4) N7 Valiant Sniper Rifle."



"Destroy as many brutes as possible—if the multiplayer community kills a combined 1 MILLION brutes within the hours of the challenge, ALL players will receive a Victory Pack as a reward."



EA tells me that all rewards will unlock on Tuesday, 3/20 at 5PM PST . Hard instructions From the press release: "You must redeem (open) your packs in the multiplayer store menu within 7-days of receiving. If you do not redeem these packs within the allotted 7-days, the packs will expire and cannot be restored. To participate, all players must enable the data tracking option in the game (options? online? upload gameplay feedback? make sure it's “ON”). If this is set to “OFF” your completion and/or contribution to the challenges will not be tracked and you will not receive any unlocks."