Helldivers player engagement collapsing

[Vertigo]

According to steamDB Helldivers has failed to break 100k for concurrent players since May 12. Peaking at only 76k for yesterday’s start of the new week.

For the last 30 days according to SteamCharts the average concurrent player count per hour has shrank to just under 85k players and it should be considered that this downward trend will likely continue. Link below:

https://steamcharts.com/app/553850

The game now has low lows but still peaks high during international gaming prime time during the early afternoon. There is still a case to be made that most of the game’s PC audience is outside of the US.

 

[AllBizness]

But it's back in the top 10 on PSN soooo......who cares about but hurt Steam fanboys mad they have to make a PSN account. PS5 version of Helldivers 2 is now the best selling at online retailers such as gamestop and amazon ect.

 

[panda-zebra]

It's a boring, shallow game with nothing really ever worth playing for and nothing really ever fun to engage with when anything worth using is nerfed into mediocrity. It's also designed PC-first - e.g. far easier to collect loads of samples super quick on PC m&k than with a pad on console.

A few weeks back my son's friend bought it. We all played together and those kids that are used to playing Fortnite, Rust and Rainbow 6 thought it was shit - too difficult, unfair and repetitive, with all the armours and stuff looking samey and not worth getting. I deleted it the day after and won't play it again no matter what they add. It was fun unlocking stuff for the first few weeks, then it was dull and tiresome.

 

[Vertigo]

But it's back in the top 10 on PSN soooo......who cares about but hurt Steam fanboys mad they have to make a PSN account. PS5 version of Helldivers 2 is now the best selling at online retailers such as gamestop and amazon ect.

It’s not in PSN’s top 10 for the U.S. for either popularity or current best sellers.

 

[AllBizness]

It’s not in PSN’s top 10 for the U.S. for either popularity or current best sellers.

It was just yesterday I will have to check

 

[reziel]

I mean this is what happens with games like this. Look at Palworld when it launched it was being taughted as one of the greatest games of the year now there's absolutely nothing being talked about. Back to Helldivers you can only do the same thing for so long before it feels stale. It'll prop up again for sure next update but it's definitely going to continue a falling trend if they don't frequently update it.

 

[Ico]

who cares about but hurt Steam fanboys mad they have to make a PSN account

do they have to make an account now? i stopped watching this whole thing for a while, thought sony had backtracked

 

[reziel]

do they have to make an account now? i stopped watching this whole thing for a while, thought sony had backtracked

Sony did backtrack. People here just keep trying to dig holes.

 

[Evilnemesis8]

I don't see anything that isn't expected?
This drop is to be expected when there is nothing new.

But it's back in the top 10 on PSN soooo......who cares about but hurt Steam fanboys mad they have to make a PSN account. PS5 version of Helldivers 2 is now the best selling at online retailers such as gamestop and amazon ect.

This is not based in reality, sure Steam users made a hissy fit as they are want to do, but the game is still currently #12 GLOBALLY on Steam right now. People are spending money.

Right now there is 70k people online on Steam for HD2.
Currently there are 102k players between both actively playing.
If you remove a 5%~ of people just afking on their game client, it's still majority PC users who are playing.
The ratio gets better for PlayStation during US evening but is dwarfed during EU/Asia playing times for obvious reasons.

The loss in active playerbase is not unique to Steam. The game needs new content just like every popular GaaS gets on a 3-4 month rotation. It currently doesn't have this, there is no roadmap as well.

do they have to make an account now? i stopped watching this whole thing for a while, thought sony had backtracked

They don't. The user attributes the decline of CCU players on Steam to the kerffufle, the real culprit for any GaaS losing players is the fact that there's no meaningful new content.

Just look at any GaaS like Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, etc...
When there's an influx of players at the season start and when the rush is over.

Helldivers 2 simply doesn't have enough new content to keep a humongous active playerbase at this stage of its life.

 

[mibu no ookami]

This is the natural progression for nearly any game like this.

They have multiple avenues to raise the player count, but they don't actively need to do anything drastic at this point.

It's still consistently one of the best selling games on Steam and on PS Store and players can come back all the time. You've had a slew of new games come out or get updates/DLC.

Eventually, the player counts will fall enough that they'll reduce the price of the game to bring more people in and eventually it'll probably be F2P.

They should be working on a MacOS port as well as well as a PS5 Pro patch. Not sure that Arrowhead is scaling up in the way they'll need to to support this game long term though. They're up 5% on LinkedIn in the last 6 months. A lot of this support will probably need to come from outside of Arrowhead, which is complicated.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Going down for this kind of game is normal but the PSN link dumb controversy and review bombing killed the momentum on Steam. It dropped really fast after that.

The game is still a huge success, the CCU is still higher than they were expecting, but they really need to add new enemies and biomes.

 

[Bryank75]

I stopped playing after they capitulated to the Steam fanboy demands. I actually deleted it the day they caved.

Won't be supporting much till Sony show they appreciate their console fanbase TBH.

 

[Vertigo]

I mean this is what happens with games like this. Look at Palworld when it launched it was being taughted as one of the greatest games of the year now there's absolutely nothing being talked about. Back to Helldivers you can only do the same thing for so long before it feels stale. It'll prop up again for sure next update but it's definitely going to continue a falling trend if they don't frequently update it.

Yea and engagement day in and day out isn’t the end all be all by any means either. Some games are designed to be returned to. Content gets exhausted.

It cannot be ignored however considering the game ismonetized for ongoing service revenues with warbonds. And that’s where it does indeed matter.

 

[shrike0fth0rns]

According to steamDB Helldivers has failed to break 100k for concurrent players since May 12. Peaking at only 76k for yesterday’s start of the new week.

For the last 30 days according to SteamCharts the average concurrent player count per hour has shrank to just under 85k players and it should be considered that this downward trend will likely continue. Link below:

https://steamcharts.com/app/553850

The game now has low lows but still peaks high during international gaming prime time during the early afternoon. There is still a case to be made that most of the game’s PC audience is outside of the US.

Its fine. Once they released the Illuminate faction the numbers go up again. The galactic war is kinda at a stalemate atm

 

[BLAZE]

It will probably be a free to play game in the future

 

[Evilnemesis8]

Going down for this kind of game is normal but the PSN link dumb controversy and review bombing killed the momentum on Steam. It dropped really fast after that.

The drop has been softer than all of last month's after the PSN controversy compared to previous weeks minus the couple of days where Gamers™ were mad.
Again, not actual reality.

If anyone clicks at the 1 month option on SteamDB, one can see that.
Which makes sense, the more players leave, the more you're left with the more "hardcore" who will keep playing.

The graph shows the natural decline of a GaaS game with no new meaningful content.

Its fine. Once they released the Illuminate faction the numbers go up again. The galactic war is kinda at a stalemate atm

Still no ETA on that though and we're almost in June.

It will probably be a free to play game in the future

That'll be way later in the future, the game's MTX really can't nickel and dime people enough to warrant dropping the premium price.

 

[Thirty7ven]

It’s a co op game, it did gangbusters but it has no chance at long legs with the initial numbers.

 

[Bryank75]

It will probably be a free to play game in the future

Highly likely. They might put it in PS+ first and then make it free in a year or so.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Honestly this is growing discontent with the weapon nerfing and the major objectives being way too hard on the shrinking population of gamers. Completing major objectives was regarded as mindless fun a month ago but that's now seen as a bit if a drag, with many players just not caring about it and trying to have whatever little fun there can be had with the current guns before that Alexus dude nerfs them again.
The shrinking population is proof of it.

Sure, the PSN debacle probably strained the relations a bit, as well as Sony taking the game away from over a hundred countries afterwards, but right now Alexus is the big culprit and Joel isn't adapting well enough to the lower player engagement.
I really think the Eruptor thing was the straw that broke the camel's back.

But it's back in the top 10 on PSN soooo......who cares about but hurt Steam fanboys mad they have to make a PSN account. PS5 version of Helldivers 2 is now the best selling at online retailers such as gamestop and amazon ect.

Steam players used to outnumber Playstation ones by over 2:1, so most probably many people at Sony and Arrowhead care about that a lot.

 

[Muddasar]

Not sure what the big deal is.

That’s still a solid number on a weekday and it doesn’t include Playstation 5 gamers either.

Secondly why does it even matter?

It’s not an F2P game which is dependent on micro-transactions and player numbers to make money.

The game has sold 12 million at 40 dollars and is already in profit. I don’t think Sony and Arrowhead expected 12 million lifetime sales let alone in 3 months.

All Arrowhead needs to do is release the third faction and stop messing around with weapon balancing. Its a PvE game and is irrelevant.

The more powerful weapons make the game more enjoyable and keeps players interested in the game.