Helldivers 2 is “blowing through the estimates”

Servers continue to be overwhelmed

Helldivers 2 recorded over 150,000 concurrent users on Steam on Sunday, February 11, 2024, becoming the most successful PC launch in the history of PlayStation’s publishing efforts. Having been released on PC and PS5 on February 8, 2024, the multiplayer shooter from Arrowhead Games Studios has most likely cracked one million sales during its first weekend, according to the company’s CEO and Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt, who said that the game was “around a million right now” early on Sunday.

Pilestedt wrote on social media that Helldivers 2 was “blowing through the estimates,” confirming that the game’s launch was a commercial success. Helldivers 2 is the Swedish developer’s first release since the original Helldivers in 2015, so this sequel has been in the making for a while – and it looks like taking this time was well worth it.

Helldivers 2 is a smashing success so far / Sony Interactive Entertainment

However, just like Palworld a few weeks ago, this initial success doesn’t come without problems: Server issues have been plaguing the game, preventing players from logging in or joining a lobby to get a session going. Pilestedt responded to one commenter who wrote that the developers were suffering from their own success by saying: “Indeed. I mean... So much... It is lovely seeing so many people have so much fun, and we are hell bent on making this the best co-op game of all time.”

It looks like the team is not lacking ambition, so players can look forward to an exciting future once the teething issues have been resolved.

Arrowhead switched the original’s recipe up for the sequel, transforming the shoot ‘em up into a full-blown co-op third-person shooter that has proven itself to be very popular in spite of the login issues. Up to four players can team up in the title to complete dynamic missions together. One of the innovative features of the game is that it’s not just the AI reacting to what the players are doing – human observers, likened by the developer to dungeon masters from table-top RPGs, can throw a wrench into the works as well to make for a truly hellish dive.