Helldivers 2: Zero active players, explained

If you’re wondering where all of your fellow Helldivers ran off to in Helldivers 2, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Here is a rundown of everything we know about the Helldivers 2 zero active players bug.

Why are there no active players in Helldivers 2?

Helldivers 2 has quickly become a huge hit, but with the recent zero Helldivers active bug, you may be thinking the worst. But don’t worry, Helldivers 2 is still going strong, even if its servers are trudging along. While the Galactic War console reveals zero online players, zero kills, and a clean sweep on all community’s stats, the war remains the same as it has always been.

The Galactic War continues to progress with or without you as the latest Defend Campaigns become the Major Order’s focus. The zero active Helldivers is simply a bug, and one that I imagine will be fixed in the next Helldivers 2 patch. All Galactic War progress you make from now in missions will save and count towards the planet’s liberation bar and Major Order counter.

If you manage to get into the game, here is what you can do to join other Helldivers:

• Go to the Galactic War console.
• Avoid Quickplay for now, as this still seems to cause issues when attempting to join a public game.
• Select any planet.
• Choose your difficulty level.
• Hover over any SOS Beacons or live missions via their white mission icons with player names attached to them. These are active missions you can join so long as your matchmaking is set to public.
• The link will activate, letting you join their game.

What is the server capacity error in Helldivers 2?

With the persistent server capacity issues, Arrowhead issued a statement revealing that the team is working hard to control the servers. One of these controls is limiting certain gameplay features such as Helldivers statistics. While it appears that no one is playing Helldivers 2, the game is far from falling off. The persistent server issues tell us that the concurrent player spike is far higher than initially anticipated for Helldivers 2‘s release.

Arrowhead has capped concurrent players to 700,000, resulting in many players waiting in server queues to get into the game. While I have been fortunate enough to enjoy Helldivers 2 every time I launch the game on PS5, many PC users have described their awkward experience with the recent server limit.

Helldivers 2 has seen its fair share of errors, with black screens at launch, no rewards at missions, and full server capacity. To combat these errors, double XP has been activated across Feb. 17 and 18. But with the 700,000 player cap, many may not be able to take advantage of this in time.