According to Steam DB, Helldivers 2‘s player count has dropped by 90% since launch. A drop in player count is to be expected for any online game at some point after launch, but from what I’ve seen, the smaller player base hasn’t hurt how much fun this game is to play.
At its highest peak on Steam, Helldivers 2 had 458,709 players all online fighting for Super Earth at once. That number has fallen over time; in the last week or so, the highest number of concurrent players was 42,293. That’s roughly 10% of the game’s concurrent player peak, and while it’s not surprising for a few different reasons, I don’t believe it’s hurting the experience players get in-game all that much.
Helldivers 2 has fewer players but just as much managed democracy
The lower player count number is purely from Steam, and so while it might not be a significant boost, there are still all the players on PS5 to consider. I’ve seen a lot of people talking about the issues that Helldivers 2 has had since launch, from players being locked out of the game during the first two weeks to complaints about Warbond quality and, of course, the PSN account debacle.
Helldivers 2 and Arrowhead Game Studios have had a challenging time in the several months the game has been live. However, despite it all, players have endured. We pulled together to push back against the PSN account requirement, and everyone has been incredibly vocal about updates causing issues. I think we’re all still reeling from what happened to ricochet.
But a lot of us are still here. At the time of writing, we’ve got an absolute mess of a Major Order that requires us to coordinate as a community across multiple worlds in multiple sectors. It’s a logistical nightmare, but not only are there enough of us to fill every mission with four Helldivers, we’re winning.
The beauty of how Helldivers 2‘s Major Orders and intricate systems work is that Game Master Joel can adjust the liberation rate on a planet to keep it in line with how many players are in the game each week. The original game, released in 2015, has an all-time Steam peak player count of 6,744, and you need only speak to someone who played that game to understand that it was always incredibly enjoyable.
Some online games desperately need huge player numbers to make their worlds feel full and lived in. Helldivers 2 isn’t one of those games because you only see other players during missions after matchmaking with them. As someone who plays daily, I don’t think the game is any less enjoyable. I think the game is in a great place because everyone is invested in completing Major Orders and coordinating to hit them as hard as we can. Player numbers will always rise and fall with new content, but the way Helldivers 2 feels to play isn’t going to change unless something much more dramatic occurs.
