Third-person shooter sensation Helldivers 2 reached an extraordinary 409,337 concurrent players over the weekend. That makes it the fifth most popular game on Steam, a fact made all the more impressive when you factor in that three of those five games are free, compared to Helldivers 2‘s $40 pricetag.
Released February 8, the Sony-funded online extraction shooter had a great opening weekend, so much so that it’s 155,000 players were too much for the servers. It seems that issue has at least somewhat been addressed, given the near-tripling of people logging on to take advantage of the extra XP weekend just past.
Read More: Helldivers 2: The Kotaku Review
While Palworld still leads as the most popular paid-for title on Valve’s massive PC platform—hitting 430,723 over the weekend—it’s notable that Helldivers 2 costs $10 more than the Pokémon-inspired craft-me-do, making its success all the more remarkable. Although, yes, let’s be fair and also point out that Palworld is a month old now, and its all-time peak was a record-breaking 2.1 million concurrents, because everything is broken now.
Heavily influenced by the oft-misunderstood movie version of Starship Troopers, Arrowhead Studio’s Helldivers was a satirical top-down co-op shooter released in 2015. Set on Super Earth, where democracy has been “improved” to ensure its results are more predictable and less at the whim of the voting public, humans fight against Bugs, Cyborgs and Illuminates. Nine years later, the game has shifted to a third-person view, the scale vastly increased, and the popularity matching.
Note that these are just PC figures, not including PS5 players, with crossplay available between the two.
Kotaku’s Zach Zweizen has been really enjoying the game, only marred by some technical teething issues.
So many shooters strive for realism, but leave out things like friendly fire or managing ammo out of fear that it might annoy players. The devs and this game aren’t here to make you heroes, instead, Helldivers 2 says: “Combat is hard. War is brutal. And you will die.” But it makes sure to give you all the tools, options, and weapons you’ll need to succeed in its hellish battles. You can become a hero in Helldivers 2.
I’m so old it’s making me nostalgic for Planetside.
