After initial success, Helldiver’s 2 has lost 90% of its players with no sign of recovery

This article was published on 6/29 and reprinted on 6/30.

It’s always a bummer when player numbers drop in the gaming space, but in this case, it’s a pretty significant story. We’re not talking about Starfield losing 90% of its players from the start as a single-player game. Instead, this is Helldivers 2, which was supposed to be Sony’s big proof of concept that it can make a big impact in the live-action space.

But months after launch, the game has seen extremely steep declines, and despite new additions and galactic war plot twists, nothing is turning the tide.

The simultaneous release of Helldivers 2 on PlayStation and PC helped make it a huge hit, ESPECIALLY on PC where it hit 458,709 concurrent players two weeks after release. But that was really the peak, and it’s dropped 90% in four months, down to 44,093 concurrent players. As such, it is routinely outside of the top 10 and is #58 on the service’s best sellers. The game’s most viewed Twitch stream currently has 56 viewers.

This is important because this is a live game. This is the kind of game that Sony wanted to make an impact and become one ongoing success, not just beginners. Sony can sell a lot of copies of single-player games, and it’s fine if the number of players drops very quickly after the players are done. But there is no “ending” Helldivers, which is constantly adding new equipment, cosmetics, large orders and new war fronts. Players have recently complained that the higher levels were too punishing to be fun, but after a large-scale patch, it barely moved the needle.

Looking at the numbers, there hasn’t been any significant growth other than a brief spike when there was a massive Automaton invasion, but interest dropped sharply after a week, and since then the game has continued to lose players rapidly.

The other issues here are the format, both in terms of content and monetization. This isn’t a game that has announced any major expansions like other straight PvE games might be. The timeline of what’s added and when it’s a surprise, even a big event like the introduction of a new enemy race to fight (Illuminate will arrive in … a moment) won’t cost anything to attend . In addition, Helldivers 2 has one of the most player-friendly monetization systems with premium currency easily earned in the game. Great for us, not ideal for Sony where the whole point of this format is significant recurring revenue, and even less ideal with 90% fewer players than to begin with.

I don’t call Helldivers 2 a failure. His big release should still be considered a hit and it surpassed all expectations at the time. But that’s not a trajectory you want to see for a straightforward, continuous game. The game hasn’t been on PlayStation’s top 10 most played list for a long time, as that list remains almost entirely the old live hits Fortnite, Call of Duty, GTA Online, Overwatch 2 and Roblox. But Sony wants theirs OWN live game be great on that platform. It was always bigger on Steam, but it has dropped off significantly with no sign of recovery there.

Helldivers 2 was seen as a proof of concept that Sony could indeed break out and move into the live space with great success. But the last few months have proven how difficult it can be to maintain this success even for a short time, given the competition established in these spaces.

Update (6/30): Since this got a lot of traction, both positive and negative, I thought I’d respond directly to some of the feedback. I think a recent post sums it up.

Bucky, CM for Palworld: “Please don’t be fooled by player count arguments on Discord, Twitter and Reddit. I see you guys in the comments, and it’s really sweet that you want to stand up for Palworld, but it’s not worth your time. Those posts are pure engagement bait. 99% of them are basically just NPCs desperate for a post to “make numbers” and the other 1% are just media doing what media does. Palworld had 2 million, then it had 15 thousand, now it has 140 thousand … it’s not something to get angry about. After a few weeks it will go down again and the next big update will go up. That’s just how it works. Palworld can literally have 1 person playing it and that won’t take away from the fact that YOU played a fun game and have fun memories of it.”

I’ve had some good conversations with Bucky about this sort of thing in the past, and in this case I think I’m that 1% there, and it was sparked at least in part by my two pieces yesterday and talking about Helldivers numbers constantly falling and Palworld is seeing a huge increase with the expansion.

Again, as I say in the article, it’s a different scenario when Sony is trying to find long-term, meaningful success with a live game, and Helldivers 2’s current pattern of small additions and new gadgets to spend coins on hasn’t moved the needle. . And with no guide, unlike other live games, unless there’s going to be a really big expansion, I don’t see anything to bring this back. The game isn’t even “set” to a concurrent player count as it’s still sliding down as we speak.

I reject the idea that it’s not important to talk about player count numbers, especially in the context of a growing live service game. I agree that it’s silly when we do this for single player games without any significant ongoing or end game components, unless it’s the other way around, like how amazing it is that so many people still play Baldur’s Gate 3.

Take Suicide Squad for example, which I noticed debuted with half as many players as Avengers, and soon after that was averaging a few hundred players on PC per day and dropping all console charts. That was a big story, just like I think Helldivers 2 tracking is a story for Sony. And while I pretty much classified Suicide Squad as a failure, which it is, I am NO saying the same about Helldivers 2 altogether. It’s just that I don’t really see a coherent plan to stop his current declines, and a lot of the feedback was explaining why there really are so many players leaving. Mainly because his format has become stagnant and there were a lot of nerfs (many may have given up before a massive buff patch recently). But overall, the trend seems like a delayed release of single player, which is not what you ideally want to see for a live game.

So I think this is an important conversation about the health of the industry and especially the continued investment in so many live service productions. But you are free to disagree.

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