Helldivers 2 passes 150,000 players on Steam for the first time in months thanks to Cyborgs, who may actually be the good guys: "I'd be playing for the Cyborg faction if given the option"

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They're pretty convincing

A Helldivers 2 Cyborg cries out in despair
(Image credit: Arrowhead)

Shocking the most loyal patriots, it seems that Cyborgs from the original Helldivers game may not be the villains Super Earth made them out to be. In fact, the half-human rebels seem to be solely responsible for Helldivers 2 having a major resurgence on Steam right now.

According to SteamDB, Helldivers 2 has enjoyed a 24-hour peak of 151,969 players (and 150,237 people are currently playing as of writing) – the last time Arrowhead's squad-based shooter hit those kinds of democratic numbers was in September 2025. But now that Helldivers 2's new Machinery of Oppression update is out and the Battle for Cyberstan has begun, Helldivers grunts are ready to start punting.

Could it be true? Well, there are signs. According to Helldivers 2's presumably venerable, in-universe Strohmann News broadcast, what the Cyborgs actually mean to say is, "We will enslave you. We will eradicate freedom." But… huh. The Ministry of Truth's broadcast seems suspiciously and heavily edited.

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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