Sony’s hugely successful Helldivers 2 game is enjoying a resurgence on the back of its Omens of Tyranny update. On PC platform Steam, it’s been averaging close to 150k concurrent players since the patch dropped, up from the 20k it was registering previously. Furthermore, it’s climbed back into the platform’s best-sellers list.
This is the typical trajectory for a live service game: huge peaks when major updates deploy followed by a steady tailing off. Both developer Arrowhead and publisher Sony will be delighted to see the title is still popular enough to enjoy massive surges like this, though.
While we don’t have PS5 player data, it’s probably safe to assume it’s enjoying a similar renaissance on console too.
In the aftermath of the update, creative director Johan Pilestedt said that “more than million Helldivers have made planetfall in the last 24 hours”.
The new update features an entire new faction named the Illuminate, as well as vehicles for Helldivers to commandeer.
Sony is capitalising on the success of its fastest-selling first-party game ever by releasing a new custom DualSense controller, which you can learn more about through here.
Have you returned to Helldivers 2 since the new update deployed? Set a course for democracy in the comments section below.
[source steamdb.info, via store.steampowered.com, x.com]
Comments 48
How is the game in terms of weapons nowadays? Any op stuff?
I don't play giant online games like this, but I'm happy for these devs. I also get the feeling that it could end at any time, and they will be perfectly happy with how well it did. Then maybe they will make another game and sell it. I hope so. It sounds radical enough to work.
I didn’t sign up to fight for liber-tea at release, as at the time I hadn’t yet played the original Helldivers. Now that I have though, this second explosion in player numbers could be the right time for me to get involved.
@AFCC I wouldn't say anything is OP but a lot of them are very fun
Not yet but I do plan on returning to dish out some much needed freedom
People make a big issue out of the peak concurrent numbers but it should be noted that Helldivers has never once left the top 5 most played games on Steam in the USA by Monthly Active Users. In October, the last month with data, it was the 3rd most played games in the US, behind only Counter-Strike 2 and Deadlock.
It has an absolutely massive active userbase even if people are only playing once a week or every few weeks etc.Theres a ton of PVP focused games that are populated almost entirely by the 10 hour a day no-lifers that drive up concurrent numbers really high but those games are just getting more hours played by a smaller number of active players. Helldivers 2 respects people’s time and you can skip months and not miss anything at all. Warbonds are all permanent etc.
I watched some youtubers exterminate the Illuminate with the Exosuit and APC and it looks super fun!
The Illuminate also looks more challenging compare to Helldivers 1. Now they have new type like zombies mob, the one who used jet pack, and even has spaceship.
What i'm curious is the sales numbers. With this new DLC and the game won some award in TGA, i'm sure there's a good chunk of new players who bought the game to spread Democracy 😁
So, i wonder if the sales numbers already pass 12-13 million copies...
I’m jumping back in. The announcement at the Game Awards reminded me how much fun it is and I need to ensure the new enemy gets a taste of freedom!
Remember: “Every bullet fired is a freedom seed planted in the hearts of our enemies.”
I enjoyed Helldivers for a good month and played it both with friends and family. Looks like it's time to return for the new content
@PuppetMaster It passed 12 million back in May (see link below). I imagine it slowed down significantly since then but it's probably past 15 mil by now if I had to guess
https://x.com/Pilestedt/status/1790300010401104124
This game and Marvel Rivals both are proved that people not wanting live service games is false.
This studio was founded by 2 young programmers from my little city up here in northern Sweden. I'm proud and impressed how far their dreams have taken them with Helldivers I & II. They are proof that you don't need to start out big in order to succeed in the long run. May Helldivers prosper for them for years to come.
@Shad361 people not wanting live service games is indeed false but people not wanting any old generic ***** live service games is very much true. If a live service game is done right (HD2) then the player base will thrive indefinitely. HD2 is an awesome game and one I'll be jumping back into very soon.
@Zeke68 my sentiments ring true with your comment 👍
@PuppetMaster @Voltan it's 15 million. In one of the many awards shows of this month Helldivers won Game of the Year and the people who accepted the award said the game has reached 15 million players. The game isn't free on ps5 nor pc so, 15 million copies sold so far.
So much for
"Dead game"
"A service that doesn't increase concurrent users with time is a failure"
"People don't trust sony, that's why they quit playing it"
lol
Helldivers is a pure PVE game, it's completely normal for people to get tired after two months of playing it a lot and it's completely healthy to give it a rest and come back whenever there is a big update, to then repeat the cycle.
Sony and AH were expecting to sell 1 million, they have sold 15 so far. Helldivers 1 had 4 years of support after release so it's safe to say Helldivers 2 is going to have a similar support. As a long time fan of Helldivers I'm happy that this IP is now a PlayStation juggernaut.
BTW while it's true that you can't track PSN activity as a whole sites like PSN Profiles can show you a small sample of the ecosystem behavior and yes, since the update the number of people playing the game has increased, the same is happening with Astro.
Would have been higher without the obligatory psn login. But sony going to sony.
@RedRiot193 There is no obligatory PSN login.....
It got removed days after it went live due to backlash.
@UltimateOtaku91 It did not get put back in countries that it was removed from is what I meant. After the psn requirement the game went downhill in player base.
I knew once they added the next faction the player base would jump back up. I expect another jump once it gets either added to plus or eventually goes free to play. Also curious to see if they eventually port it to mobile or even the next switch.
@GymratAmarillo @Voltan Wow. 15 million copies in less than a year?!
I guess Arrowhead already secured enough budget for their next game. But i can see they stick with Helldivers 2 for at least 4-5 years.
"giga hit".. dude it's not even on the top 20 most played games lol a giga hit is Marvel's rivals, COD, path of exile 2, GTA V, Dota..etc those are true giga hits. HD2 is just a regular game, it will go back to #55 when people are bored, it already lost 50k players while the update is just 2 days old.
Counter-Strike 2 1,727,574
PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS 749,885
Dota 2 671,680
Path of Exile 2 425,224
Marvel Rivals 342,467
NARAKA: BLADEPOINT 251,936
Grand Theft Auto V 198,906
Source SDK Base 2007 172,100
Black Myth: Wukong 170,646
Rust 157,437
Apex Legends 141,844
Wallpaper Engine 123,033
Call of Duty® 116,347
Banana 113,304 128,145
Delta Force 113,159
Great update! Really different fighting the new faction. An unfortunate side effect to the surge in popularity is that I got disconnected from three of my four matches last night.
Tried it out and kinda regret not refu di g when I had the chance. Not that the game is bad but its just not for me. Glad people who jump back in or are getting started are enjoying it.
Arrowhead, you are slacking on the trophies. Been time to add more!
@-Sigma- Oh please no. Trophy unlock requirements often bias how people are playing instead of persuing the in-game objectives and the result is it dicks everyone else over.
@alienwithin those numbers are really interesting. Steam DB I assume?
@-Sigma- Just noticed I need one to finish a hard mission without using a primary OR support weapon. That's gonna be fun.
@alienwithin Clown comment alert. It didn’t “lose 50k players” since the update. The day of the update was a peak of 133k, Friday was a peak of 150k and Saturday was a peak of 132k. The number of players changed during the day, because people don’t play 24 hours straight obviously. Path of Exile 2 “lost 250k players” between peak time last evening and this morning for example.
The idea that Marvel rivals is a “Giga hit” and HD2 is not is preposterous. Rivals has a peak user count on steam of 480k players while being 100% free to play. HD2 had a peak of 458k players while being $40 for the standard edition and $60 for the premium edition. It sold around 7M copies in steam alone in it’s first 3 months, around 15m worldwide now.
Helldivers 2 enters the top 10 grossing global games on steam every major update and every Warbond release. Currently it is the 5th highest grossing game on Steam today, compare that to a AAA big release like Indiana Jones thats like a week old and already down to 15th. A title update for HD2 will generate more revenue than an entire AAA game in its launch month, and HD2 will have dozens of major updates over the course of its lifetime.
Co-op games do not sustain massive peak user counts because people playe them much more casually than PVP game. Path of Exile 2 will be the exact same scenario as HD2. Path of Exile hit 229k after its last major update on the 22nd of July and by October its peak daily user counts had dropped to 12k. POE2 will be the same pattern. It’s still a massive hit, just like HD2.
@alienwithin i think they’re comparing it to concord when they mention HD2 as a giga-hit
Last night, there were almost 200K players on the planet that the Illuminate are invading. There were probably other players elsewhere. That was incredible to see.
@AFCC
Not that I am aware of, fortunately. Generally, you can just pick whatever you want and have fun, the way it should be.
Please. I never left. I'm no dissident.
Removed - trolling/baiting
Tried it last night. Latest update seems to have stopped all sound
@alienwithin Are those Steam numbers? But Helldivers 2 also released for PS5, which the game director said there's more than a million players who's playing after the update released.
https://x.com/Pilestedt/status/1867696938361249972
And it's a "giga hit" since the game sold 15 million copies in less than a year, far exceeding Sony / Arrowhead initial target sales at 250K copies.
having a great time. loving this game, not had this much fun online since horde mode in Gears 2
@alienwithin several of these aren't even games (Source SDK Base, Wallpaper Engine, and arguably Banana) and most of them are free upfront (CS2, DOTA 2, PUBG, Marvel Rivals, Naraka, Apex Legends, Banana, Delta Force). cut them out entirely and your longlist is suddenly a shortlist.
POE2, GTAV, Black Myth, Rust, and COD.
of those, two of them have been around for a decade. two others, plus GTA, are sequels to extremely established franchises. the only one here that has had an actually breakout mega-success like HD2 is Black Myth: Wukong—which has benefited from a dearth in new AAA single-player titles on Steam this year, as well as its obvious status as a game that launched day one in China, with dizzying levels of hype there (you know. China. the largest country by population).
calling Helldivers 2 a "giga-hit" is entirely merited. especially considering how it's a colossal hit on PlayStation too—by far Sony's greatest success this year commercially.
@alienwithin Not sure where you're getting your list from but here it's actually 7th in most played right now.
https://store.steampowered.com/charts/mostplayed
@MrMagic He basically chose the time of the day when Helldivers 2 is at its lowest and other games are at their peak since different games have different regional biases. Most of the free to play games are majority Asian players, HD2 peaks at European and USA evening times.
@RedRiot193 downhill as it’s top 5 on steam. Really hurting them not being able to sell in Saudi Arabia 😆
Right now the new content has made some new bugs and brought back old ones the SOS Beacon is broken again for some. If people leave and throw out an SOS no one joins for some people happend to me again 4 times today.
Connection issues are still bad can be playing and get kicked to ship or desktop for PC version, pc performance is getting worse this update has caused me to drop FPS again
@alienwithin wow , I don't follow the PC gaming scene but they really seem to enjoy playing old games .
@nomither6 I rather take your word some salty dude who hates everything PlayStation and still decides to waste his time here all the time.
@Shad361 (#11) Not wanting shiddy cash-grab ones, that is!
@Shad361 people most certainly want live service games. There are just so many to choose from so it leads to the failure of a lot of them.
@alienwithin bet you're fun at parties 🙄
@dgmgeneral07 And yet it doesn't matter because it would have passed it's peak if it did sell in those countries it's not on anymore.
@UltimateOtaku91 You should probably be more specific. Technically, you're right because they removed the requirement for people who had already bought the game in countries where PSN is available. But there are still many, many countries locked out of playing because they don't have access to PSN even if they already bought the game. All PC players who got upset about having to create a PSN account got their way, but by doing so they brought undue attention to another issue and effectively influenced Sony to shut down access to the game in countries without PSN. So no big surprise - PC players throwing a fit over something minor and making other people miserable along the way.
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