Helldivers 2 joins Steam’s top 3, nearly breaks its own player limit

2024 is the year that keeps on giving. Helldivers 2 has climbed to the top of the gaming world as yet another of this year’s smash hits. The game broke into the Steam top three with over 400,000 players, and nearly smashed its own 450,000-player limit.

Sony’s surprise hit and its first game to ever release simultaneously on the PlayStation and PC has continued to grow, and finally reached the highly coveted Steam top three. On Feb. 19, only days after release, Helldivers 2 became the third most-played game on the platform by concurrent players, standing alongside Valve’s own CS2 and Dota 2. The game peaked at over 407,000 players, according to SteamCharts, beating out even the new year’s biggest success story, Palworld. This fantastic record comes after the game’s developers announced they would be limiting the concurrent player numbers to 450,000 as they work to solve the mounting issues surrounding networking and matchmaking in the game.

To achieve such a high position on the rankings, Helldivers 2 beat the likes of Baldur’s Gate 3, GTA V, Call of Duty, and Enshrouded. These numbers are also Steam-specific, and the official figures of the game’s performance on the PlayStation are unknown, though if the hype on the PC side is anything to go by, I’d say it’s pretty damn successful over there as well. Helldivers 2, all hype aside, only has about 70 percent positive reviews on Steam due to the game’s rampant technical issues, mostly to do with low server capacity and instability which are likely the byproducts of unexpected popularity.

The developers have already stated on numerous occasions they’re working diligently to fix the game and bring it up to speed for such a vast audience, before announcing they’d also limit how many players can play at any given time. Still, even with all the issues, Helldivers 2 has proved a mighty title and has already earned its spot in the ever-increasing 2024 Hall of Gaming Fame.