In brief: Helldivers 2 officially launched exactly two months ago on February 8, and it has already become a smash hit for Sony. According to a report by IDG consulting, the game’s daily active user (DAUs) numbers on Steam are comparable to those of popular major releases like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Apex Legends.
Helldivers 2 garnered millions of players on Steam and PlayStation within just 30 days of launch, states the report. While there are no exact numbers, it revealed that they are only slightly lower than what CoD achieved on Steam, Xbox and PlayStation, and much more than what games like Apex Legends and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League got during their first 30 days on the market.
IDG also noted that Helldivers 2 is a hit with the reviewers, notching up a Metacritic score of 82 out of 100, which is much higher than the likes of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (60) and Payday 3 (66). For reference, Apex Legends has a Metacritic score of 89, while Modern Warfare II has a score of 75.
To get anywhere near the DAU numbers of Modern Warfare II and Apex Legends is quite an achievement, given that the former is one of the most successful games in recent years, while the latter also has a sizeable fanbase. Both games routinely get more than 150,000 concurrent players on Steam each day, but while Modern Warfare II has an all-time record of nearly 500,000, Apex Legends hit over 600,000 during February and March 2023.
Helldivers 2 matching the DAUs of wildly-popular titles like CoD and Apex Legends is remarkable due to a number of reasons. First off, it is a paid game costing $40 a pop, while Apex Legends is free-to-play. In addition, CoD is available on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, while Helldivers 2 is only available on PC and PS5.
Moreover, Helldivers 2 faced a myriad of challenges since its launch, including massive server bottlenecks during the first few weeks. Arrowhead has since raised the server cap from 450,000 to 700,000 concurrent users, although they continue to reach capacity during peak times. To further ease the load during these periods, the game has implemented an auto-kick functionality that boots anyone who remains idle for 15 minutes, freeing up space for waiting players.
