88% Increase Proves Helldivers 2 Player Count Can Turn It Around, Even When It’s Out of Spite

Helldivers 2, the sensational and critically-acclaimed co-op shooter from Arrowhead Game Studios is one of the most popular game releases so far this year. The game quickly raked in players and made a name for itself in live-service genre.

However, it also saw a number of issues, ultimately driving a large number of players away. But, it now looks like the game is finally recovering as players are returning to the game in hordes, and it doesn’t really matter if it out of spite or for the love of the game.

Helldivers 2 Sees an Increase in Player Numbers

Despite server issues and technical problems at launch, Helldivers 2 had a great start but it soon started losing player after few months. It was so bad the game had lost its 90% players by June.

The concurrent player count on Steam was at mere 9796 players, its lowest ever in July. The future of the game didn’t look so well after the PSN controversy that pushed players to quit the game. However, players have now managed to turn things around for the game.

As per SteamDB, the game’s concurrent player count has started to increase consistently since May 2024. The game recorded 24 hour peak count of 38,663 players on August 4th at 20:00 UTC with the lowest count of 18,450 players.

In comparison to last month’s player count, this is a massive 88% increase in 24 hour lows player numbers. At the time of writing, there are over 25k players in the game on Steam and the 24-hour peak is over 32k players. This is a great recovery for the game but it may not be for the right reasons.

Is This the Community Refusing to Anti-tank Mines?

The upward tick in Helldivers 2 player count is good news for the game. This shows that there are many players who are still enjoying fighting for managed democracy.

But it seems like there may be a couple of reasons behind and one could be players coming to the game to steer away from Anti-tank mines. The current major order is quite unusual as it is rewarding players for failure to complete it with the ant-tank mines.

It seems like players want to avoid getting these mines and they are coming back to the game to complete the major order. This leaning into the meme and threatening players with mines has worked for the developer and Helldivers 2 as players are back in the game.

It is also possible that players are getting ready for the major Escalation of Freedom update or the Freedom’s Flame Warbond scheduled to launch on August 8th. Whatever be the reason, the game is back on track, again.

What are your thoughts about the increase in Helldivers 2 player numbers? Let us know in the comments!