Helldivers 2 Is Already One of Sony's Best-Ever Sellers in the US

A lot of factors came together at the right time. I think don't not building hype for the game actually did way more to help the game. At the end of the day, make a great and fair game, and people will reward the developers more often than not.

@Cutmastavictory And this game doesn’t take itself too serious, and it take risks. These and its moderate price are the opposite of what people see as characteristics for a AAA game these days. The Sony guys in Tokio should already have made their own conclusions on this.

My goty so far. I play this game everyday even if its only for a quick mission. Superb game.

Demmmocracy prevails once more 💪🏻

Complete domination, well deserved after 10 years of hard work from ArrowHead and obviously Sony could have easily ruin the game with predatory microtransactions like Diablo but they didn't so even they deserve a congrats here.

Now two points just for fun:
-It sold so much on PC because it is a multiplayer shooter, if the game was a new Uncharted people would have lost interest after a couple weeks (because of their bad taste, Uncharted is awesome lol).
-"This author thought Helldivers 2 was going to be a colossal flop" Yes Sammy we know you are the heel of this site lol.

Secondary Point: Ghost of Tsushima grossed more in America than games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4 and the Last of us remastered.

The game is good and the price is right.....its not complicated really🤷‍♂️

@Cutmastavictory plenty of great games don't sell well. Success is a tricky thing.

It’s one of the few games that plays into dumbassery without preaching to you.

Guys like dumb fun. Guns, explosions, and, of course, democracy.

This game doesn’t make out those things are bad, it celebrates them. Usually games make out those guys to be the idiots or evil. In this game it makes them the heroes, while simultaneously being the literal cannon fodder. It’s genuinely clever.

I think this also goes into the reason Stellar Blade is popular with certain male audiences. Because there’s an attractive woman in front of your eyes.

Men are men. We like being men. So let us blow stuff up, laugh at crude humour, and admire attractive pixels. But also, don’t talk down to use while doing it and you will win us over.

@Kienda following that "simple" logic, every game that allows you to blow stuff up would be successful, because "we're men". But not all of them sell well. Same with games with a sexy female protagonist. Way too many examples that show otherwise.

@naruball that’s not what I said. It’s not “simple”. And it’s not just about guns and sexy women.

It’s about making good games, adding elements to them that are appealing to core traits of men, but doing it without talking down and belittling us for liking those things.

Well done Arrowhead Game Studios.

@Kienda not according to the community manager, she says you are playing as the bad guys.

@Deityjester that’s also missing my point a bit.

I think the culture is trying to out morality into everything when they don’t need to. The perception of the player in Helldivers is we are the good guys and we are blowing everything up, including ourselves, and it’s all for the greater good.

This also plays into why bad guys are also cool. Darth Vader, Bowser, Sephiroth, even Wreck it Ralf.

Each one is uniquely different example, but there is something about them that appeals to us. Even though they are “bad” (although not all the examples I gave are).

I’m probably not getting my point across properly in the comment sections. But there is more nuance to what I’m thinking than maybe I’m able to put down in words.

@Kienda

I think the culture is trying to out morality into everything when they don’t need to. The perception of the player in Helldivers is we are the good guys and we are blowing everything up, including ourselves, and it’s all for the greater good

The game is satire, you're playing an expendable farm kid from iowa sent out to die on foreign soil by a hyper militaristic authoritarian government to secure your supply of oil(bugs), fight communisn(bots), secure Weapons of Mass Destruction that don't exist(illuminate).

Your point highlights why the game is successful in America though. It manages to appeal to both "sides". The Right take it at face value and love blowing stuff up and shouting about Democracy and liberty and the Left understand satire.

So the lesson for Sony is probably, that staggered PC releases are dumb and day one PC releases are way to go...

@Godot25 for live service games yes, and they already committed to that before the release of Helldivers 2.

PC is still a multiplayer dominated medium though. Single player games are doing better these days buts it’s still a lot behind consoles.

@naruball which is why I wrote what I wrote. A lot of factors came together...

@ChrisDeku Claiming that PC is multiplayer dominated medium while Baldur's Gate 3 broke records last year and Cyberpunk 2077 was best selling on PC (from three platforms) and while Manor Lords is booming is pretty dumb statement.

Especially since most popular games currently on PSN are Fortnite, Modern Warfare, EA Sports FC 24, GTA V, Helldivers 2, Rocket League, Rainbow Six Siege and Overwatch 2.

PC is same multiplayer dominated as every other platform with exception of Switch. So pretending that it's "PC only thing" is strange.

Well that's a lot of Super Credits!!

I think it sold a boatload because it's quite different to the rote MP shooters (sick of Battle Royale etc.) and its just plain fun.

@Godot25 Total nonsense, PC is way more multiplayer skewed, this is a basic fact.

Single player Games on PlayStation and switch will regularly sell 20m and sometimes 30m+ copies.

Theres practically zero single player games on Steam that sell 20m copies. BG3(which has multiplayer btw) sells phenomenally well buts it’s still at only 6.83m sales on steam according to Playstracker estimates.

Steam is not only dominated by big multiplayer games(Counter-strike 2 had 10x as many players as the highest single player game, fallout 4, in the last 24 hours) but random multiplayer games will be all over the top 30 games: War Thunder, Rust, Lost Ark, Crab game, Team Fortress 2, Grey Zone: Warfare. Naraka: Blade Point was the 5th most played game in the last 24 hours.

Steams biggest userbase is Asia, and they almost only play multiplayer games.

@ChrisDeku "This is basic fact" supported by nothing

Mate. Just look at the most popular PlayStation games currently.
https://www.truetrophies.com/news/ps5-top-40-helldivers-2-vs-fallout-4
There are probably 10 SP only games in TOP 50. That should tell you all that MP games are more popular on every platform with exception of Switch. It's not PC only thing.

Also. Can we just not use PlayTracker as a source for game sales? Because there are several trackers on internet and for example VG Insights is showing 15 million copies sold of Baldur's Gate 3 on PC.

It's also hilarious that you are latching onto 20 million singleplayer sellers on PlayStation when there are probably 2-3 SP only games that hit that mark. Spider-Man, God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn. So selling that much isn't a common thing. It's a rare thing to achieve.

Bethesda games are usually selling best on PC, same for CD Projekt RED games. So pretending that PC games don't care about SP games is just pure fantasy. It's more like PC gamers are preferring different type of SP games, not "over-the-shoulder third person action adventure with 3 hours of cutscenes."

Also, money from PC gamers into SP games are split into way more games, since PC has way way way more games than any console.

The game deserves its incredible success. I have been hooked. Helldivers 2 quickly become my most played game on Steam and PlayStation, dethroning Destiny 2. (World of Warcraft is still my most played game ever.)

Also. Can we just not use PlayTracker as a source for game sales? Because there are several trackers on internet and for example VG Insights is showing 15 million copies sold of Baldur's Gate 3 on PC.

VG insights also says that Helldivers 2 has sold 12.77m copies on steam which is nonsense. PlayTracker is the only accurate one, as long as the game has never been free or given away etc. Larian also revealed the game had sold around 8m copies across all formats at the end of last year when they showed how many people had completed the games(cross referenced with game completion percentage from achievements).

You’re right that all formats are dominated by multi-player games, but steam is skewed even more than normal since it doesn’t just have all the big western games, it also has all the big non-japan Asian games and they’re basically exclusively multiplayer games.

Games that sold or will sell 20m on PS only:

God of War(2018)
God of War: Ragnarok(sold 15m+ in 12 months, easily 20m+ lifetime)
The Last of Us(26m+ over PS3 and PS4)
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Marvel’s Spider-man
Marvel’s Spider-man 2(10m in 3 months)
Uncharted 4 (16m 5 years ago)

Games like Last of us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon: FW all broke 10m officially years ago and probably close to 20m+ or will eventually. Miles morales is over 14m as of early 2023 from the insomniac leaks.

Also, out of all the big single player games you mention on Pc, basically every single one is a western RPG. That’s because PC is the home of the CRPG, so you can add the caveat that PC is multiplayer and CRPG skewed if you want.

@ChrisDeku It was a fantastic game.

It's the most fun multiplayer games of all time in my opinion (plus thirty five years of gaming experience).. Sure there are deeper multiplayer games and pvp can be particularly engrossing if done well but HD2 just ticks so many boxes and importantly, it's evolving.

@ChrisDeku Yes, only you understand satire and humor. I praise your superior media literacy.

Not to be the grammarian here, but it is technically sold at full price. Better wording might be to state the Helldivers is being sold at below MSRP expectations.

Anyway, happy for the success of this game. It is very well deserved!

@Jaz007 I clearly said half the population understands satire. I’m sorry you’re part of the half that doesn’t understand basic sentences(and probably satire)

@ChrisDeku You know what “you” inferre in that sentence or anyone normal person would, it’s a shame (only you this time) you lack basic inference.
You really are being stuck up if you think almost anyone doesn’t get the satire and just enjoys it how they want anyway. It’s almost like art take a life of it’s own sometimes.

This game went viral like Pal World. I bought it and played it and it was pretty good but honestly not as good as Final Fantasy Rebirth or Stellar Blade. Just goes to show how little reviews and game quality matter compared to Tik Tok and social media.