Helldivers 2 Player Count Has Plummeted

The player count for Arrowhead Game Studios’ critically-acclaimed co-op shooter, Helldivers 2, has declined dramatically on Steam. Despite being a massive commercial success for both Arrowhead and Sony, it seems that Helldivers 2 is struggling to maintain the majority of its playerbase several months after its simultaneous release on PS5 and PC. There are many reasons why this could be happening, but regardless of the cause, this doesn’t paint a good picture for the future of PlayStation’s live service ambitions.

Helldivers 2 launched in February 2024 and became an immediate smash hit, with the title lighting up the sales charts and receiving a near-unanimous positive reception from fans. Many gamers praised the co-op shooter not only for having enjoyable gameplay, but also for bucking the trend of incorporating aggressive monetization, an aspect that other live service games often suffer from. The positive buzz surrounding Arrowhead’s latest title contributed to Helldivers 2 passing Destiny 2‘s concurrent player count on Steam only a few weeks after its release. Later on, Sony confirmed that the game had sold 12 million copies by May 2024, making it the fastest-selling PlayStation-published title of all time.

Unfortunately, though, it seems that Helldivers 2‘s widespread critical and commercial success isn’t translating into longevity, as the game has lost around 90% of its players on Steam, according to data provided by SteamDB. At the time of writing this article, Arrowhead’s co-op shooter has approximately 38,048 concurrent players on PC, with the user count peaking at 44,000 in the last 24 hours. While these numbers aren’t by any means terrible, they do pale in comparison to Helldivers 2‘s massive player count milestone of 458,709 back in February 2024.

Helldivers 2’s Player Count Decline Could Be Attributed to the PSN Account Linking Controversy

Since its release, the game has gradually lost active users on PC over the last few months, with the most notable decline being in May 2024, when the live service shooter’s player count dropped by an astonishing 63.5%. This coincides with Helldivers 2‘s PlayStation account link controversy earlier that month, when both Sony and the game itself were blasted by PC players for unexpectedly announcing a PSN connectivity requirement at the time. Although SIE did walk back the controversial decision after immense backlash, it seems that the dilemma may have caused more harm to Helldivers 2 than the company might’ve expected.

It’s possible that Helldivers 2‘s decline in player count isn’t that big of a deal, as games lose monthly active users all the time. However, to see a massively successful title experience such a dramatic drop in players does bring into question the long-term viability of future live service games from Sony, like Concord, Marathon, and Fairgames. If the competition in the GAAS market is so high that even immensely-acclaimed games like Helldivers 2 have to fight to maintain their relevance, then it’s hard to imagine other titles remaining more popular for longer stretches of time.

Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 is a third-person cooperative shooter developed by Arrowhead Games Studios for the PC and PlayStation 5 where players take control of a Helldiver set to protect the citizens of Super Earth by traveling to hostile alien worlds and destroying threats. Players undergo missions, defeat enemies, and use special items called Stratagems to help turn the tide of battle in this punishing release.

Franchise

Helldivers

Released

February 8, 2024

Developer(s)

Arrowhead Game Studios

Genre(s)

Shooter

Multiplayer

Online Co-Op

Number of Players

1-4

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