After overwhelming success, Helldivers 2 raises player cap to 450,000 to improve server stability: "We are still struggling to keep up"

News
By published

Arrowhead are working to up that number again

Helldivers 2 tips
(Image credit: Sony)

Despite doubling the concurrent player capacity just a few days ago, developer Arrowhead has once again announced a huge player cap expansion for co-op shooter Helldivers 2 while the studio attempts to maintain its now overwhelmingly large player base. 

Helldivers 2 has been off to a flying start this week, quickly surpassing the biggest PlayStation Studio launches on Steam based on concurrent players. Arrowhead has since begun an emergency hiring spree to (try to) keep up with demand, though the team is still "completely exhausted."

"Earlier tonight we had server-related issues with a concurrent player spike," an Arrowhead employee writes in a message posted to the game's Discord channel, reposted on social media. "This lead to some mission payouts failing, some players being kicked to their ships, or being logged out," the message continues.

"Our team is working around the clock to solve these issues. While we've been able to mitigate some of the causes, we are still struggling to keep up with the scaling that is needed." Despite the overwhelming demand, the team still managed to increase concurrent player capacity to 450,000 concurrent players, up from the previous 360,000 cap, to "further improve server stability." That means many players will likely be stuck in a queue until the capacity increases once more, or until the demand dies down (unlikely.) Encouragingly, the team is working with "partners to get the ceiling raised."

Helldivers 2's community-wide mission to spread democracy (and robot explosions) together has catapulted it to massive success, so it's not surprising to hear that it'll "never" receive a competitive player versus player slant, according to CEO Johan Pilestedt.

Have you gotten through the queue? Check out how to rescue science teams and evacuate civilians in Helldivers 2. 

Kaan Serin
Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.