Helldivers 2 Becomes PlayStation’s Biggest PC Launch Title

Rahul Majumdar
·3 min read

Helldivers 2

It’s safe to say that no one saw this coming: Helldivers 2 has just become the biggest PlayStation-published title on PC, and it’s not even close. The third-person multiplayer shooter was released last week and quickly dethroned Palworld as the best-selling game on Steam. By Sunday, the game managed to reach a peak concurrent player count of over 155,000 players, doubling that of God of War’s 73,000 which was, until now, PlayStation’s biggest PC port.

The game represents a shift in PlayStation’s PC strategy, being the first title to be released on both PS5 and PC simultaneously. While PlayStation Studios’ head Hermen Hulst had previously announced that live-service games from PlayStation would be released day-and-date on PC, it’s still surprising to see the smashing success of Helldivers 2. It’s a sequel to a slightly niche game, but positive word of mouth has propelled Helldivers 2 to new heights. It’s also worth noting that its developer, Arrowhead Game Studios, is not a first-party studio owned by PlayStation.

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As of the time of writing, Helldivers 2 is the tenth most-played game on Steam. It’s clear that the game’s focus on live service elements and community-based meta-elements have helped its success. It also has a dry, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor lifted directly from Starship Troopers, and is unlike anything PlayStation has published on PC. One of the biggest factors for the game’s success on PC is its price - it’s relatively cheap at $39.99, with regional pricing kicking in for other countries.

Another thing that has been in Helldivers 2’s favor is its inherent virality. Given the game’s mix of large-scale battles and satirical comedy, it’s very easy to have moments that are easy to share on social media. If you follow any gaming topics on X/Twitter, then you’ll have seen many clips from the game floating around racking up views. Of course, this doesn’t mean the game hasn’t seen its fair share of problems, ranging from server disconnection issues to an anti-cheat that many PC players hate.

Here are the biggest PlayStation PC ports by all-time peak concurrent players:

  • Helldivers 2 - 155,926 players

  • God of War - 73,529 players

  • Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered - 66,436 players

  • Horizon Zero Dawn - 56,557 players

  • The Last of Us Part 1 - 36,496 players

  • Days Gone - 27,450 players

  • Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales - 13,539 players

Every other PlayStation-published PC game sits below 10,000 concurrent players as seen on SteamDB. PlayStation is yet to publish other anticipated PC titles like The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima and the recently confirmed Horizon: Forbidden West on the platform. It remains to be seen whether any of those games will follow Helldivers’ trajectory. Nevertheless, it’s going to be interesting to see how PlayStation moves forward.

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Helldivers 2 is out now for PC and PS5.