Arrowhead Game Studios’ Helldivers 2 has performed well since its launch. While the studio has publicly confirmed that the game has outperformed their expectations, there is still no official number to its performance. However, a market analyst has estimated that Arrowhead has shipped over 8 million copies of Helldivers 2.
In a note written last week and published by Bloomberg, Doug Creutz, an analyst with TD Cowen said Helldivers 2 sales figures continue to grow weekly. “We believe the game has performed well ahead of expectations,” Creutz said.
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Sony is yet to release an official sales figure for the game which has given room to speculations. However, since fixing the server issues that plagued the game at launch, it has consistently recorded over 300,000 peak concurrent players, according to SteamDB.
At the time of writing, the concurrent player count on Steam was 301,048 and in the previous 24 hours, the peak was 362,288. Also, the co-op shooter has consistently remained in the top 5 most played games on Steam.
Helldivers 2’s current all-time peak concurrent player count on Steam is 458,709. However, there are suggestions that it could have been higher if not for the server issues it faced after launch. After resolving the server issues, the studio’s CEO Johan Pilestedt said the studio will now focus on content and improvements.
“Now we have time to focus on improvements to the title and resume our original plan,” Pilestedt said. “Many exciting things upcoming.”
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The success of Helldivers 2 has raised the question about the relevance of exclusivity in video games. Some people are now calling on Sony to consider releasing its first-party games on PC. While Sony has created a PC port for its first-party titles in the past, they usually happen two or more years after the game’s release.
Helldivers 2 is the first time that Sony’s first-party title is launching on PC the same day it launched on a PlayStation console. Even making things more interesting is that the co-op shooter supports crossplay between PC and PS5. That means players on both platforms can band together to spread democracy.
Helldivers 2 was the best-selling game in the UK in February
Every month, Video Games Europe releases Game Sales Data (GSD). Launched in 2017, this data offers updates on sales in both retail and network markets. In February, it revealed that Helldivers 2 was the best-selling game in the UK, beating EA Sports FC. Also, Sony’s PS5 led hardware sales.
According to the data, Helldivers 2 sales in the first three weeks after release were 28% lower than the number pulled in by Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Sony’s record-setting hit within the same period. Helldivers 2 PS5 version accounted for 57% of its sales last month while PC sales accounted for 43%.
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The chart also shows that the sale of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has continued to decline. Although it debuted at number 4 on the chart, its sales number was down 20% compared to Gotham Knights which was released in 2022. Warner Bros. said the game has failed to meet their expectation.
Arrowhead continues to unwrap Helldivers 2 like onions with the consistent release of new content since the launch of the game. Warbond – Cutting Edge update was released on March 14 and came with new weapons and capes.
The studio has also added Exosuits and new enemies including flying bugs called Shriekers. Arrowhead is listening to feedback and modifying the game accordingly. With the large volume of games released monthly, it will be interesting to see how many players are still loyal to the franchise after six months.