Helldivers 2 is Getting Even More Popular – Here’s Why

For fans and even those who heard of it in passing, it’s official: Arrowhead Game Studios’ Helldivers 2 is suffering from success.

It’s something that wasn’t really expected before launch. Sure, pre-release impressions were positive, but it didn’t have a marketing budget akin to other big PS5 exclusives like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Fans of the original likely didn’t expect this either, as indicated by the original peaking at 6,744 concurrent players on Steam when it launched.

There were also some concerns before the launch over its live service aspirations. While Galactic War was detailed, how it really played out was unknown, and the War Bonds and Superstore rubbed some people the wrong way, especially with microtransactions confirmed. The fact that the PC version used nProtect’s controversial GameGuard also didn’t help. Did we mention the lack of pre-launch reviews, likely because of servers going live at launch and how much the enjoyability hinged on Galactic War?

Nevertheless, despite seemingly everything going against it – even with so many other hyped releases the month prior and more to come, like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth – it made a big splash. It started with about 57,000 concurrent Steam players at launch on February 8th. A pretty impressive total nearly ten times that of the original, but within a day, it shot to 81,000, becoming the best launch for a PlayStation Studios title on Steam. By February 10th, it rose to 119,000 concurrent players and on February 11th, Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt confirmed about one million sales and how it was blowing through the estimates.

It’s important to note the initial player numbers because several players couldn’t play with others. Quickplay was broken, and though you could eventually see others’ games to try and join them, it didn’t work most times. Crashes and other issues affected both versions, but PC players had the worst. Of course, there was also controversy over the Premium War Bonds since some weapon variants and armor were exclusively available in the same. Armor was also sold in the Superstore on a rotating basis and could only be purchased with Super Credits.

Yet despite all that, Helldivers 2 continued to soar in popularity. On February 12th, it had 155,000 concurrent Steam players. Again, consider that the original barely even hit 10,000 peak concurrent players during its lifetime on Steam, and here was the sequel obliterating that record – and its own – on a near-daily basis. However, when factoring in the PS5 player base, the total was over 360,000 peak concurrent players, and it kept going up.

By this point, Arrowhead Game Studios realized that its server capacity wasn’t enough. On the same day, Pilestedt addressed issues regarding players not being able to log in and mission rewards not being received. It was due to a rate limit that its services implemented that denied connections beyond a certain volume each minute so that everything wouldn’t suddenly collapse. While the team increased the limit from 10,000 players per minute to 20,000 and its total concurrent player capacity to 360,000, the cap was reached in less than six minutes.

Of course, it only kept going up, with over 200,000 peak concurrent players on Steam alone by February 14th.

One could probably ask the question by now: Why is Helldivers 2 such a success? It isn’t a Pokemon competitor with a massive open world like Palworld, which also launched on multiple platforms alongside services like Game Pass. It’s not a triple-A budget title. Pilestedt confirmed it was in development for almost eight years, but Arrowhead has about 100 developers. The engine used for Helldivers 2 – Autodesk Stingray – stopped receiving support in 2018 and is by no means cutting edge.

There’s also the fact that it’s live service, a business model which recently saw not one but two underwhelming releases from big companies (Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Skull and Bones). Also, unlike those games, it’s not the ideal solo experience because of the difficulty and so much of the experience being tailored specifically around playing with others (which was quite challenging initially).

Yet it stands tall, like a squad of Helldivers chest-bumping after jamming a Super-Earth flag into a Terminid corpse. Why? Because it’s a great game.

The shooting feels good. Calling down Stratagems to outright nuke Factories and Nests feels good. Killing stuff in general, whether it’s the Automatons, Terminids or your teammates, feels good. The game’s satirical nature, where the horrors of galactic war and the totalitarian Super-Earth are interspersed with over-the-top deaths and one-liners, is hilarious.

It’s one of the few titles that takes its premise seriously while embracing the ridiculousness. Also, for a campaign that will evolve over the long run, Galactic War has already delivered some memorable moments, whether liberating the initial Terminid planets or the surprise invasion by the Automatons.

If that weren’t enough, the live-service implementation was pretty well done, from the game masters responding in real-time to spice things up for players to farming Super Credits simply by playing the game. That Superstore items aren’t obscenely priced like other competitors is also noteworthy. The $40 price also probably helps, providing less of a barrier of entry for prospective players.

However, a lot of credit goes out to Arrowhead Game Studios. Despite the problematic launch, the team has worked around the clock to address issues while Pilestedt provided extensive communication. You could say it’s contributing to the positive word of mouth around the game, but a developer keeping an open line with fans is pretty refreshing, whether it’s celebrating fan art and retweeting highlights or acknowledging problems and delivering solutions.

Also, how many CEOs have told prospective customers, “If you have no cash, get it later. While we made a really fun game, it’s worth waiting until the servers can support the capacity”? Again, maybe it makes for easy brownie points, but I don’t remember Rocksteady Studios making such comments with their live service offerings.

Helldivers 2 has peaked at 458,709 concurrent players on Steam, entering the platform’s all-time Top 20 and beating the likes of Halo Infinite, Destiny 2, Starfield and Grand Theft Auto 5. It received updates for increased server load and up to 700,000 concurrent players, though Pilestedt tweeted that he expected it to hit 800,000. The first weekend for the title has passed without any issues, thankfully.

While the in-game war rages on, fans have pondered what’s next. Arrowhead is working to expand its team for future content, which includes new biomes, enemies, objectives and story updates, all for free. Hilariously, it had a roadmap but started working on a new one, revealing the former is “very out of date in comparison to what we now want to do.” With servers stabilizing, the development team is focusing on improvements, with Pilestedt also promising “some real cool stuff.”

Helldivers 2 could look like a very different game in a year, let alone a few months. However, for those who started at the beginning, dying to automated sentries in training or celebrating their first liberation, this month has felt special. If Arrowhead can replicate that feeling, it has a bright future. Who knows? It may even give some hope to Sony’s other live service prospects.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.