Helldivers 2 quickly overtakes Destiny 2 and Starfield to become the biggest Steam launch from PlayStation or Xbox Studios

News
By published

Concurrent player peaks keep reaching new heights

Helldivers 2
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Waves of players are attempting to spread democracy and bash robots in co-op shooter Helldivers 2, catapulting the game to record-breaking success, as the sequel has now passed the concurrent PC player peaks of the biggest PlayStation or Xbox-owned releases.

Helldivers 2 previously became the biggest PlayStation Studios launch on Steam, beating God of War's concurrent player peak of 73,000 in just a single day. The shooter has now passed its own player peaks almost every single day since release and enjoys an all-time peak of 388, 754 players, according to estimates from Steam Database.

These updated numbers put Helldivers 2 out in front of smash hits such as GTA 5 and Monster Hunter World. The unexpected overperformance also probably validates PlayStation's newfound focus on courting PC players - and hopefully will lead to even more simultaneous PC and PS5 launches.

Helldivers 2 has also reached the biggest PC player peak for a PlayStation-owned game, passing Destiny 2 - which technically falls outside of the PlayStation Studios umbrella - now sitting in second place with 316,000 players. Xbox's biggest launch on the platform - Starfield's impressive 330,000 number - has also been trumped.

Developer Arrowhead is "struggling to keep up" with such overwhelming demand, however, and recently had to limit the player cap to 450,000 to deal with a surge of aspiring Helldivers. Following in Palworld's large footsteps, the studio is starting a massive hiring spree to respond to the game's unexpected mega-success.

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.