A new report has revealed that Tencent has invested in Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios. According to Swedish publications Dagens Industri and Breakit (via Insider Gaming), Tencent had bought 15.75 percent of Arrowhead Game Studios back in July 2024, with the deal being valued at roughly $83 million. This has brought up the value of Arrowhead Game Studios itself up to roughly $532 million.
The report has also revealed that Arrowhead Game Studios made an operating profit of around $76 million in the last year, with an overall turnover of roughly $100 million. According to the studio’s chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt, the decision to make a deal with Tencent came about because Arrowhead Game Studios wants to also attract more gamers from the Chinese market. “Chinese player base is the holy grail in the gaming industry,” he said.
While Arrowhead Game Studios has worked on a number of different titles in the past, including classic chaotic co-op games like Magicka, the studio’s most successful title so far has been co-op shooter Helldivers 2. After having an impressive launch followed by a bit of drop off in player numbers, the game has recently started bouncing back. Back in May, Helldivers 2 got an impressive concurrent player count of more than 129,000 players thanks to its Heart of Democracy update.
As part of the update, Super Earth itself was under attack by the Illuminate, with players being forced to drop into major cities on the planet in order to mount a defense. The update brought with it a new type of map that focused more on urban warfare than players would have been used to, having previously fought against the Terminids, Automatons and Illuminate on alien planets with a variety of biomes.
Heart of Democracy was a follow-up update after a major one was released just before, which brought with it a big new gameplay feature in the form of weapon customisation. Since the update, players have been able to level up their primary weapons as they complete missions. Leveling the weapons up allows players to unlock attachments for the weapons, giving players more options in terms of playing style.
Pilestedt also revealed back in May that Helldivers 2 gets around 2.5 million players just about every week. This reveal came just as the Heart of Democracy update was being released. In his post, Pilestedt noted that he was “super excited to see how many more log in with this update.” He also said that he was “so happy and blessed that we have such an amazing community!”
Helldivers 2 is available on PC and PS5. Since its release last year, the title has gotten quite a few major updates, complete with the in-game Galactic War storyline evolving based on whether players have been able to complete Critical Orders issued by the in-game game master Joel.
The studio celebrated the first year of Helldivers 2 back in February with a video series featuring Joel recounting his favourite moments from the Galactic War metanarrative.
