Arrowhead’s chaotic alien-shooter Helldivers 2 became PlayStation’s fastest-selling game ever, but despite its initial success, player numbers have since declined.
A look at the game’s Steam charts shows a steady drop since February, when the game launched. According to SteamDB, at its peak in February shortly after launch, there were 458,709 concurrent players. In comparison, its peak over the last 30 days is 166,305. That’s a drop of 64 percent.
Looking by average players, February had 208,303 helldivers in the game. That average player count has dropped to 78,634 over the last 30 days (a 62 percent drop).
Of course, player numbers are expected to drop over time. But for Helldivers 2 there are a number of factors that may have contributed to this decline.
The most notable reason is the infamous PSN debacle that kicked off earlier this month. At the start of May, Helldivers 2 publisher Sony announced players on Steam would soon be required to link a PlayStation Network (PSN) account to keep playing. This not only resulted in swathes of negative reviews from a very disappointed community, but the game was also pulled from sale in 177 countries where PSN was not available.
Sony soon backtracked on its plans, stating it was “still learning what is best for PC players”, calling the monumental spate of feedback “invaluable”.
Another factor contributing to the game’s decline in player numbers could be the balancing, which Arrowhead’s newly appointed chief creative officer and chairman Johan Pilestedt previously admitted the team sometimes went too far with. Additionally, the game has sometimes been subject to bugs and other issues, causing player frustration.
In response, the Helldivers 2 team is now considering a “slightly lower” but higher standard update frequency after a busy first few months.
While there has undeniably been a drop in player numbers, Helldivers 2 remains popular, and Pilestedt believes the game’s success is not because of the price point (Helldivers 2 currently retails at a comparatively modest £34.99 on Steam).
Earlier this week, Pilestedt spoke at the Nordic Game conference, where he addressed Helldivers 2’s ‘smash hit’ status. Here, he stated Arrowhead managed to get the “fundamentals” right and delivered on the “fantasy” of the experience. While many others have made shooters like Helldivers 2 before, Pilestedt said his team “dug into the believability of what it would be to be in that game”.