How does Helldivers 2 defy typical sales curves? Breaking down the game’s galactic-sized success

Whereas most new video game releases, even the most successful ones, trail off in sales in the weeks following its release, Helldivers 2 is doing something truly unprecedented.

According to gaming industry analyst and former Activision/Warner Bros. Games business executive Mat Piscatella, Helldivers 2 sales in the U.S. have increased for the third week in a row, something Piscatella calls an “honest-to-goodness inverse decay curve” that is both “rare and amazing.”

Typically, a game released in Q1 sees its biggest sales week during week one before declining week-to-week over time. Helldivers 2 is experiencing a reverse in this trend, selling more units each week, which Piscatella says is “rare, particularly for bigger games.”

Why is Helldivers 2 selling more each week?

There’s a handful of factors to consider when exploring the success of Helldivers 2.

With server issues and capacity improving over time, players who have been waiting for stability before purchasing can finally feel comfortable pulling out their credit cards. This can be tracked via the Steam review score, which has recovered from the drop to Mixed as a result of player frustrations, and is now back up to Very Positive.

But where did this wave of players willing to suffer through queues or wait weeks to finally get Helldivers 2 come from? Via modern-day word of mouth. Across Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, Discord, YouTube, and virtually every major platform gamers use, Helldivers 2 has been the focal point of discussions.

A reason for this popularity is the idea that Arrowhead Studios is doing live service games right with rewarding gameplay that provides multiple progression avenues, with minimal and non-intrusive microtransactions. Aside from doing a consumer-friendly take on live services, Helldivers 2 is also capitalizing on several recent major live-service games that have struggled at release, like Skull & Bones and Suicide Squad.

Because of the game’s overall design, which prominently features a persistent but changing war effort that players contribute to, players likely feel less worried about what they’ve missed out on already because there’s still so much more to come, including new weapons and content. Is Helldivers 2 going to keep posting better and better sales weeks forever? Of course not, but what’s it done in three weeks is nothing short of impressive.