Helldivers 2 has properly been going through it over the past couple of months, as developer Arrowhead has faced challenge after challenge. The good news is that the democracy-doling PS5 shooter has managed to maintain its place at the top of the 2024 US sales chart – at least, for now.
As per the latest figures shared by Circana executive director Mat Piscatella, Helldivers 2 has continued to beat out some of the best FPS games on the market like Call of Duty MW3, the best RPG games like Dragon’s Dogma 2, and more. Though it didn’t shift as many copies as ShiftUp’s triple-A debut, Stellar Blade, in April, the sheer popularity of the PS5 exclusive is carrying it through.
However, while May has been tough enough for Arrowhead following its PSN account linking woes, as well as the continued decline of active players, the cracks in Helldivers 2’s market performance had already begun to show last month. According to Piscatella, April dollar sales fell “by more than 70% when compared to March” – ouch.
Of course, it’s natural for game sales to fall off as the initial rush to snag a copy of the latest hotness subsides, but now Arrowhead has to try and retain those players long-term – something it’s currently struggling to do. Though the data for PS5 isn’t publicly available, if Helldivers 2’s current Steam performance is anything to go by then it’s no wonder why players are failing major orders.
Over the past 30 days, the concurrent player count has literally halved according to SteamCharts. Whether this is due to the fallout from the account linking issue, the overzealous nerfing of weapons (a common player complaint), the lack of impactful new content outside of new Warbonds, or a mixture of the above, it’s clear that Helldivers 2 is beginning to run out of steam (pun not intended).
Hopefully, Arrowhead’s recent CEO shake-up will give game director Johan Pilestedt the space he needs to get things back on track. The return of the Automatons on April 7 yielded a huge spike in activity, and I can imagine the heavily-anticipated introduction of the Illuminate faction will have a similar effect. Though I do wonder how long Helldivers 2 will be able to sit on top of the sales charts for, right now it feels like sales (sans add-ons as Piscatella specifies) are very much a secondary issue. I’m manifesting a big uptick soon, for the sake of Super Earth.
For more of the latest news on the best PS5 games in pew pew land, check out the four big new mysteries from Destiny 2’s The Final Shape launch trailer. Additionally, peep the new The Finals update that packs major nerfs, buffs, and a tasty XP boost – bosh.