Rhys Elliott

YouTube video by People Make Games The Messages Rockstar Saw Before Firing 34 Union Members

I shared this yesterday. But I want to repost @chrisbratt.bsky.social's investigation into the Rockstar union-busting allegations.

What people in the business call "proper reporting" and the kind of stuff a healthy media ecosystem must support.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TvW...

The first episode of our new show is out now.

Give it a try at all Patreon tiers, and grab the video version at the Insider tier and above.

ARC Raiders dominated Steam again last week, but indies also crushed it An update on our Arc Raiders numbers, as well as metrics for last week's other top sellers, including a bunch of co-op, Dispatch, and a DLC. Great stuff.

Here's the top 5 Steam games by copies sold last week (Alinea estimates)

INDIES <3

ARC was #1 for the 4th week in a row, selling almost 750K copies last week. This brings its total on Steam to 4M. It's quickly approaching 7M across all platforms.

Full wee analysis of the top 5:

You can almost taste their jealousy.

Fuck em; you rock

This reply on Twitter 💀

This Twitter interaction between @kevinroose.com and the Roblox CEO is WILD.

Genuinely thought a bot/satire account was replying to Kevin.

Anyway, the interview is wild and well worth a watch: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/p...

Sony has made over $1.2 billion on Steam via selling over 43M copies of PlayStation Studios games (Alinea estimates)

Here's the top five PlayStation games on Steam by copies sold, and a full analysis:

alineaanalytics.substack.com/p/the-top-se...

All-timer bad cover art for one of the games of the generation, this.

The Game Awards nominees by copies sold Alinea Analytics copies sold estimates (and more) for the game of the year nominees, including Expedition 33, Silksong, and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. What a year!

Here's the @thegameawards.com GOTY nominees by copies sold across Xbox, PlayStation & Steam (Alinea estimates)

Full analysis on the free Substack (link below!)

WHAT A LIST <3

Having a tough time with my personal list this year.

What's your GOTY pick?

alineaanalytics.substack.com/p/the-game-a...

The Game Awards nominees by copies sold Alinea Analytics copies sold estimates (and more) for the game of the year nominees, including Expedition 33, Silksong, and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. What a year!

Here's the @thegameawards.com GOTY nominees by copies sold across Xbox, PlayStation & Steam (Alinea estimates)

Full analysis on the free Substack (link below!)

WHAT A LIST <3

Having a tough time with my personal list this year.

What's your GOTY pick?

alineaanalytics.substack.com/p/the-game-a...

Grand Theft Auto VI has been delayed again, and with everyone trying to get out of its way, how does this delay impact the rest of the games industry?

We asked the experts: https://bit.ly/4qVqbst

Appreciate it!

Thanks -- much appreciated :)

Valve’s bold, expected return to the living room Valve has already made an estimated $4B+ on Steam this year. The Steam Machine is a strategy to boost its revenues and ecosystem further. Here's our take on Valve's upcoming console-like PC.

Just published a big analysis of the Steam Machine, including the audience, Valve's angle, pricing, value propositions versus console, challenges, and eating Xbox's lunch.

alineaanalytics.substack.com/p/valves-bol...

Last week's top Steam games by copies sold (Alinea estimates)

Find a full analysis, including total copies sold for each game, in the new free Alinea Insight newsletter (link in bio and in the comments).

So happy that Dispatch is nearing 1.5M copies sold. Roll on the finale tomorrow <3

Last week's top Steam games by copies sold (Alinea estimates)

Find a full analysis, including total copies sold for each game, in the new free Alinea Insight newsletter (link in bio and in the comments).

So happy that Dispatch is nearing 1.5M copies sold. Roll on the finale tomorrow <3

Holy shit it's magnificent

Guitar Hero at 20 – how a plastic axe bridged the gap between rock generations Guitar Hero’s controllers let anyone become a star in their own living room – and made the bands featured in the game household names again

20 years ago today I was trying to find a dodgy little import game shop near Bournemouth with printed-out directions from Google Maps, so I could spend half my meagre pay from my first job on a plastic guitar. Here's Chris Lord on one of the all-time great games:
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...

"The game where you handle lots of fun data and one not-so-fun boss'

Definitely been there, in the past luckily 😆

ARC Raiders has sold 2.5M copies Also, co-op games already made $7B+ on Steam this year. We use Alinea estimates to dive into these topics and explore the pros and cons of extraction shooters.

We have ARC Raiders at 2.5M sold, with 69.2% on Steam (1.7M), 17.3% on PlayStation (400K), and 13.5% on Xbox (300K+).

Full analysis in the Alinea Insight Substack:

alineaanalytics.substack.com/p/arc-raider...

ARC Raiders has sold 2.5M copies Also, co-op games already made $7B+ on Steam this year. We use Alinea estimates to dive into these topics and explore the pros and cons of extraction shooters.

We have ARC Raiders at 2.5M sold, with 69.2% on Steam (1.7M), 17.3% on PlayStation (400K), and 13.5% on Xbox (300K+).

Full analysis in the Alinea Insight Substack:

alineaanalytics.substack.com/p/arc-raider...

October's top 10 PlayStation games by copies sold (Alinea estimates)

So much variety. Blockbusters, small games, old games, and new ones are selling. Sports games dominated and perform best on consoles.

‘‘CoNsOlE iS DeAd’’ arguments are getting silly. alineaanalytics.substack.com/p/octobers-t...

Ghost of Yotei outsold Assassin’s Creed Shadows on PS5 in under three weeks Analysing why Yotei has already sold 2.5M copies, but it Shadows took seven months to sell 2.4M on PS5. Plus, another look at our Helldivers 2 estimates (almost 20M sold!)

After seven months on the market, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has sold less on PS5 (2.4M) than Ghost of Yotei did (2.5M) in under three weeks (Alinea estimates)

This samurai showdown is just about settled, I reckon.

Full analysis in the new free Substack:

The Steam Next Fest games that gained the most Steam followers We look at some of Steam Next Fest's biggest success stories, before providing some tips on how to increase your chances of Next Fest glory.

Here's the Steam Next Fest games that added the most followers during the event.

Obviously, some of these already had a bunch of followers before, while some were added to Steam right before the event (so technically had a leg up for this analysis)

Full write-up on the free Substack.

The Steam Next Fest games that gained the most Steam followers We look at some of Steam Next Fest's biggest success stories, before providing some tips on how to increase your chances of Next Fest glory.

Here's the Steam Next Fest games that added the most followers during the event.

Obviously, some of these already had a bunch of followers before, while some were added to Steam right before the event (so technically had a leg up for this analysis)

Full write-up on the free Substack.

Played CrossCode after you recommended it on Splitscreen back in the day.

One of the best games I've ever played, so thanks for that.

Hoping they can make the next game happen 🙏