Yesterday saw the launch of Helldiver II, both on PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam. After one day, the game has broken a record as it has become Sony’s biggest launch on Steam, passing God of War.
Yesterday, Helldivers II saw a peak concurrent player count of 81,840. When God of War launched on PC back in 2022, there was a peak concurrent player count of 73,529. God of War isn’t the only game Sony has made available on the platform. As noted, the next biggest concurrent player count is Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered which released on PC back in 2022 and has an all-time peak player count of 66,436 followed by Horizon Zero Dawn with a count of 56,557 players. The Last of Us Part 1 released last year on PC with an all-time peak of 36,496. Days Gone had a all-time peak of 27,450 when it released in 2021. The last big major PlayStation first-party game released on Steam on the list is Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection which has an all-time peak player count of 10,851.
There are a number of reasons for a game’s success. For Helldivers II, the price point of $49.99, which is not the typical pricing for a new game, might be a big factor. As most people in the video game community will tell you, games are very expensive at this moment in time. Simon Carless, the founder of GameDiscoverCo, which tracks and analyzes Steam usage, says that another reason for the game’s success is due to co-op.
“I think co-op is key, and people are always looking for AAA-looking co-op games they can try with their buddies. And the original Helldivers being another great co-op game (although more of a twin-stick shooter!) is a great lead-in to the sequel,” Carless told Polygon.
Despite Helldivers II’s success, the launch wasn’t as smooth as developer Arrowhead Game Studios would’ve wanted. There were numerous reports of server and matchmaking errors and problems with the game’s anti-cheat software that could prevent the game from launching.
Following the game’s launch, Arrowhead Game Studios has been hard at work addressing many of the issues that players are having. One update improved matchmaking and the most frequent crashes. Another improved matchmaking for PC and included some other crash fixes that have been identified.