Helldivers 2 was advertised too successfully

Helldivers 2 might be one of the best co-op shooters of all time. Helldivers 2 gameplay consists of satisfying gunplay, funny lore, and servers at capacity please wait. Because the Helldivers 2 trailers were simply too good. They weren't even gameplay trailers, they were cinematics but they were hilarious and the tone of the game overall is perfect. I didn't play Helldivers 1, third person shooters aren't my jam, but the marketing team for Helldivers 2 was cookin, and I love Helldivers now... when I make it through the server wait time.

[atomic]

So they originally had a server cap of about 260k, that got immediately filled so they were able to raise it to 380k, that too got filled. Some context, the Steam concurrent player count was that high at one point and that's not even taking PS5 players into account. And just now they've been able to raise it to 700k. All this to say Arrowhead's previous highest concurrent player count was like, 12k lol.

Just no way they could've anticipated this level of success, literally unthinkable.

[KazikoWhite]

The best loading screen tip I've had so far is:

"Friendly Fire isn't."

[Eclipsle]

The crazy thing is they did very little advertising for this game at all. They had a trailer but didn't have any advertisement campaign pushing the game. Instead, after the first weekend of folks playing, the power of word of mouth made this game beyond popular. Just given the math, say the first weekend you played, then got three other friends to get the game for week 2, you're tripling player count just by asking friends to play. They also implemented a afk timer and suddenly the servers are doing a lot better now that they aren't full of folks afking all day at work

[long_jontaro_silver]

"Dying on a foreign planet, killing godless aliens *IS* the American Dream"
- best quote I've heard that describes Helldivers and our generation perfectly

[ariventiuscrane]

"I looked up WWII and it was real" I laughed so hard at that oh my *lord*

[AlbatrossCommando]

"They can't hide in the trees if there's no trees" ~ US Army 1961-1971

[Meepo]

Im a helldivers veteran, I am almost crying with the amount of liberty being spread

[Dact]

"Those friendly fire incidents were entirely unavoidable"

[elkaki]

Because of the mayor order being 10 days left, I presume this was recorded 5 days ago

For people that want to buy the game, I would say at least for the past 2 days there have been no issues login in to the game (a week ago it took like two hours, right now ir takes seconds)

Although matchmaking seems to still be broken to an extent, but you can join random squadrons and don't need to add people as friends in their discord anymore

[CamoFlash_]

*"How about a nice cup of Liber-tea?"*

[radfoxuk]

Fun fact the bugs decompose into oil, fuel... that's why we farmed them, then they escaped starting the second galactic war, when the cyborgs took the chance to perform a revolution... The Illuminate, not in the game YET, are the only ones that do not spill freed- OIL, upon the ground when liberated. No matter which enemy - at this time - you fight, you're spilling oil.

[Orain]

The funny thing is I don't think they even went too crazy with the marketing campaign. I didn't see loads of ads pushing this game in the lead up to launch. It's just that the cinematic intro/launch trailer is such a banger and is actually representative of the real game in terms of both gameplay and satire, that it went viral on its own merits.


This game is genuine multiplayer coop goat material.

[loafoforange]

Just an FYI,

The servers released with 100k per platform. It was beyond undersized for what they got, BUT to be clear their previous game(the first Helldivers) had a peak player count of under 7k. 100k at the time had to have been looking like overkill. That weekend in under 48 hours via some black fucking magic they pushed it up to 280k per platform. I am a DBA and I have no fuckin clue how they pulled that shit out of their ass. Over the next week and some change they moved it to 300k then 400k and then just recently 700ish thousand. I forgot the final stat exactly but it was finally enough to survive the hype train they were unironically suffering from. Along with that they finally implemented an auto kick system to deal with the people AFK camping server spots like assholes(there was roughly 100k people kicked from this system on its release). Again before release there was no way you would predict even having a need for that.

Also god bless them they are doing all of this on an ancient swedish(i think) game engine that you genuinely can't even get anymore. There was no way for sony or anyone else to just throw bodies at the problem.

Anyways all that to say that is why there are so many different numbers as to what the capacity was. They were actively working 16 hour shifts for multiple weeks and weekends trying to get their servers up to snuff, and it shows from how many times the kept pushing updates and server cap increases.

[Brotacon]

If you want to know true terror, try playing a bot mission solo. The game suddenly becomes Metal Gear Solid V.

On the game itself, it's incredible. Me and my brother used to play Helldivers 1 (a top down twin stick shooter) years back, and to play a game that feels like such a huge step up in scope but with the same gameplay loop and style is just a dream.

[Bradysbunches]

i love how every universe where united humanity fight aliens is just Space America

[blanketray]

no but can we acknowledge just how good the facial expressions on that man in the intro cutscene looks? I've been dying to talk about it, his anguished expression is so well made, from his neck folds to his furrowed brow.

[halogeek]

On the topic of detail, I love the fact that after the icbm detonation, the map weather clears up for a few minutes.

[SentinelV.R]

SO THATS WHERE THE BALLS PING CAME FROM

[Erilis]

1:29 "I kind of love [the game's satirical theme] unironically. Dying on a foreign planet, killing godless aliens, IS the American dream." 🤣

[thesomewhat.happyguy]

The bugs leave us covered in goo, out of ammo, and sick of the planet

The bots leave us covered in oil, silent, and desperate to get off the planet.

James hasn’t spoken since that mission we lost Kerry to melevelon creek.