Current Events > Helldivers 2 is the best-selling premium game of 2024 so far

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.msn.com/en-au/lifestyle/shopping/helldivers-2-is-one-of-the-best-selling-sony-games-ever-after-just-two-months/ar-AA1nZDmV

Sonys decision to launch Helldivers 2 across PlayStation 5 and PC has been a huge success, as it now ranks among the highest grossing Sony games ever.

If Helldivers 2s success wasnt clear enough, after topping the charts for two consecutive months in the UK, sales data in the US has sealed it as a Sony giant.

In data published by Circana, Helldivers 2 ranks as the best-selling premium game of the year so far, based on dollar sales across physical and digital, ahead of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Dragons Dogma 2.

The majority of this success has come from the PC market rather than the PlayStation 5, with the co-op shooter topping the charts for the most played Steam titles based on monthly active users in March.

Industry analyst Mat Piscatella highlighted how successful it has been on PC, following its launch on February 8.

PC has been a huge part of the success of Helldivers 2 in the US, he wrote on Twitter. With PC, Helldivers 2 is already the seventh highest grossing Sony published game in history. Without PC it wouldnt currently rank among the top 20.

The success of Helldivers 2 will likely lead Sony to launch more exclusives simultaneously across PlayStation and PC in the future something the company has already talked about, as it looks to improve the companys profit margins.

Get ready for this to be the norm, similar to the Xbox strategy of console + PC. Doesn't bother me in the slightest, if we can get more fun as hell games like Helldivers 2 I am fine with it. This game really has done tremendously well and, as a fan of the first one, that pleases me a lot. I think the other benefit and reason for it selling so well is how easy the cross play is. Being able to play from PS5 and PC at launch and the great word of mouth could easily have caused it to balloon as much as it did.

Meanwhile, Payday 3 is still a piece of shit.

Here are some other fun facts:

In Europe, the United Kingdom, and Canada, Helldivers 2 was the best-selling game of February 2024.

By 24 February 2024, the game was estimated to have sold over 3 million units and became the most actively played game on the PlayStation Network, surpassing Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 and Fortnite. By 15 March 2024, Helldivers 2 was estimated to have sold 8 million units and reached 450,000 concurrent players on Steam.

Helldivers 2 continued to be the best selling game in the UK for the second month in a row, and also managed to drive up video game sales by 26% in the country.

Sony managed to seemingly strike gold with at least one live service game. Arrowhead definitely needs to work on stability though, they are on a tight update schedule and the issues are piling up.

I'm glad people are enjoying it, it's not my kind of game though.

I think it's weird that if everyone gets KOd it just spawns everyone instead of game overing. Makes it feel like there's not much stakes.

Doe posted...

I'm glad people are enjoying it, it's not my kind of game though.

I think it's weird that if everyone gets KOd it just spawns everyone instead of game overing. Makes it feel like there's not much stakes.

There are limited respawns, so you don't spawn forever. Everyone dying is a severe loss of reinforcements which will cause a mission fail and the enemy to gain ground in the operation so there are definitely stakes, some even larger than you would think.

Well I'm glad to hear that the game's success might mean Sony welcomes PC more. I guess that's another good thing to come of it.

Still hilarious to me how they were expecting another small scale game like the first one, and it just exploded to the point they struggled to even get servers functional. I've still been enjoying it, but you can tell they're a smaller dev struggling to keep up with the unexpected popularity. I'm still enjoying it, but you can tell they're having issues.

What makes it premium?

Not in a "fuck this game" way, in terms of "best-selling premium game."

Kaldrenthebold posted...

The success of Helldivers 2 will likely lead Sony to launch more exclusives simultaneously across PlayStation and PC in the future

Hell yes! This is something I've been waiting for from Sony. I only have a PS5 so I can play the exclusives I'm interested in ASAP. But if they launch on PC simultaneously, instead of years later, then that's one less console I need.

DrizztLink posted...

What makes it premium?

Not in a "fuck this game" way, in terms of "best-selling premium game."

A game you have to buy, not given away in Game Pass or PS+ or F2P with cash shop.

Being almost half the price of usual "premium" games helps too

Don't worry they are working hard to "fix" that mistake by forcing PC players to link a PSN account.

Vyrulisse posted...

Don't worry they are working hard to "fix" that mistake by forcing PC players to link a PSN account.

Yep. This i think will kill the game fully more than anything else. GG

Vyrulisse posted...

Don't worry they are working hard to "fix" that mistake by forcing PC players to link a PSN account.

And if I don't have a PSN account and refuse to create one?

Vyrulisse posted...

Don't worry they are working hard to "fix" that mistake by forcing PC players to link a PSN account.

Why is it a bad thing to link a PSN account?

I have one but I haven't bought the game yet

deoxxys posted...

Why is it a bad thing to link a PSN account?

I have one but I haven't bought the game yet

Because it clearly works w/o it, so why make it a requirement?

Also, a lot of us still remember this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_PlayStation_Network_outage

Truly some outstanding businessing from Sony here.

I guess I can't complain too much since I got my money's worth, but fuck Sony. I'm ouuuuut.

Man I really need to but Helldivers 2.

I've kept putting it off because I had something else to play, but I don't think I will once I'm done with Stellar Blade.

Does it still get enough regular players for it to be worth buying sometime this month?

voldothegr8 posted...

And if I don't have a PSN account and refuse to create one?

You don't play it anymore

And to be fair, it does say it's required on the store page but they had to turn it off at launch due to the server issues. Guess they are turning it back on. I play on PS5 so it's not a problem for me but it's absolutely an issue for people that live in countries where PSN isn't even available.

This is going to go over like a sack of bricks

The game works without it, so players are naturally going to ask why it's necessary now. Of course it was a listed requirement from the beginning so it's kinda on them for not reading the fine print, but at the same time you gotta have a better reasoning than it being for "safety."

Kaldrenthebold posted...

You don't play it anymore

And to be fair, it does say it's required on the store page but they had to turn it off at launch due to the server issues. Guess they are turning it back on. I play on PS5 so it's not a problem for me but it's absolutely an issue for people that live in countries where PSN isn't even available.

This is going to go over like a sack of bricks

A lot of countries will be locked out because of this, because in all their glorious wisdom they sold the game to countries without access to PSN. Hopefully at least those people can get refunds.

Also, many people myself included would have insta refunded or not bought it in the first place if a PSN account was required to play.

This definitely seems to me like the kind of thing that's gonna get a rollback and and awkwardly-worded apology post within a day or two

voldothegr8 posted...

A lot of countries will be locked out because of this, because in all their glorious wisdom they sold the game to countries without access to PSN. Hopefully at least those people can get refunds.

Also, many people myself included would have insta refunded or not bought it in the first place if a PSN account was required to play.

I've heard that there was a pop up to link your PSN account but it seems unsure if it was constant or you just skipped once and never saw it again. As I said I am on PS5 so I was required to have it regardless.

500kg review bomb lmao

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a0a37066.png

voldothegr8 posted...

500kg review bomb lmao

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a0a37066.png

Lol yeah the subreddit is up in arms (but they always fucking are, it's one of the worst I've seen). I have no doubt we'll hear about this more next week.

The helldivers 2 subreddit is pure garbage. It really is one of the worst.

Anyway HD2 is my game of the year so far I love it.

Kaldrenthebold posted...

I've heard that there was a pop up to link your PSN account but it seems unsure if it was constant or you just skipped once and never saw it again. As I said I am on PS5 so I was required to have it regardless.

According to the announcment:

• From May 6th onwards, new players have to link it the moment they start.
• Existing players will get some pop up feom May 30th onwards.
• From June 4th it will be mandatory, or you can't play it at all anymore.

Karovorak posted...

According to the announcment:

* From May 6th onwards, new players have to link it the moment they start.
* Existing players will get some pop up feom May 30th onwards.
* From June 4th it will be mandatory, or you can't play it at all anymore.

Oh I meant at launch, apparently some people on launch day saw it but could skip it. Which would lend credence that it was at least there from the start but they turned it off because of all of the issues.

Regardless it is a bad move and they are going to suffer for this.

GOTY baby fuck the haters

I opted in on launch day. It is bad for the countries without PSN.

I haven't played in over a month cuz of work and Dragon's Dogma 2 but I do miss playing it. Good ass game

JMPzero posted...

I opted in on launch day. It is bad for the countries without PSN.

Yeah I think this is really the worst of it. It's been sold on Steam to countries that don't have PSN and that...that is really bad. At least, I think it has been? I am not really sure but if this was the case they got a big problem.

At this point in time I have so many accounts another one really isn't much of a bother. Plus, people have been begging for a way to report cheaters and griefers and this apparently is how they will be able to do that. Getting killed by some asshat that throws down a strategem on the landing pad deserves a timeout.

The biggest issue I see is Sony sucks nuts when it comes to security. They've been breached so many times it's ridiculous. Having a Spotify account is whatever, but I would be much more concerned with Sony considering all that they've dealt with.

I feel bad for Arrowhead. When it comes to players internationally, the game's population is going to take a big hit. And many people are going to attack Arrowhead instead of Sony.

if They just explain that linking the account allows you to have universal account that works in both pc and PlayStation. They can avoid this issue.

JMPzero posted...

I opted in on launch day. It is bad for the countries without PSN.

now that is a serious problem. Because Steam does service in countries that consoles neglect.

VFalcone posted...

I feel bad for Arrowhead. When it comes to players internationally, the game's population is going to take a big hit. And many people are going to attack Arrowhead instead of Sony.

No, I disagree. Arrowhead knew what they were getting themselves into with Sony. They could simply have said 'no'.

Well deserved. It's good stuff. I love Helldivers 2.

I hope they sort out this PSN account stuff for the countries who aren't eligible. I remember a similar fiasco with Overwatch 2 trying to force people to link a cell phone number to their account "for security purposes," but a lot of carriers weren't supported.

Nazanir posted...

No, I disagree. Arrowhead knew what they were getting themselves into with Sony. They could simply have said 'no'.

Sony has always owned the Helldivers IP and Arrowhead is a relatively small dev team. Because of that, Sony funds Helldivers and Arrowhead and have total control. Arrowhead made the game, yeah, but they have no rights to it. Individuals on their team said so on Discord.

If it wasn't Arrowhead, it would've been some other group getting screwed over. Sony didn't care about what happened with Helldivers for all these months and let Arrowhead run the show, but now that Helldivers is actually making money, Sony wants to come back in and control their shit.

voldothegr8 posted...

500kg review bomb lmao

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a0a37066.png

Deserved.

Lol at the review bombs from earlier this week. People salty as hell that their meta weapons got minor nerfs

VFalcone posted...

Lol at the review bombs from earlier this week. People salty as hell that their meta weapons got minor nerfs

As with most live service communities, the stupid ass "meta" lust every influencer on Twitch and YouTube screams is a detriment to a healthy community. It is wild how people get SO SALTY at changes. The game isn't PvP, meta doesn't fucking matter. Go spread democracy with what you like and shut the hell up.

Where is Sayoria with that shot in the foot pasta cause damn is that what Helldivers did lmao

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a2776197.jpg

Axiom posted...

Where is Sayoria with that shot in the foot pasta cause damn is that what Helldivers did lmao

Sony just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about Japanese culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in America where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in Japan, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the Japanese public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase Helldivers 2 for either system, nor will they purchase any of Sony's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Sony has alienated an entire market with this move.

Sony, publicly apologize and cancel Helldivers 2 for PC or you can kiss your business goodbye. Farewell! ..... Here's a toast to ya. *Sips milk*

I am ready for Sony to be gone and consoles along with it.

Be woke make lots of money.