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Over the summer, and all the way up to the latest update, the number of Helldivers had been decreasing slowly, but steadily. Around the release date of Space Marine 2, the player count was at its lowest level yet. A week later, the numbers skyrocketed as the players were eager to check out all the buffs. Many naysayers insisted the influx of players was only temporary. Now, almost two weeks later, the most recent player counts show that Helldivers 2 has made a triumphant return.
Player Counts Show Helldivers 2 Is Stable
Even though the numbers are nowhere near those at launch, at least yet, the number of players easily tripled, sometimes even quadrupled or quintupled over the last couple of weeks. SteamDB shows the number of players playing Helldivers 2 only on Steam. If you look at the graph, you can see the exact date the update dropped.
Now, it might look as if the number of players is slowly dropping, but, according to SteamDB, it peaked at more than 51k players in the last 24 hours. At the time of writing this article, on a random Monday afternoon, more than 16k players are playing the game.
Keep in mind that the in-game numbers differ quite a lot from these, as they include PS players. So, currently, there are more than 21k players in-game, with a 24-hour peak of around 80k players. That might sound like nothing compared to almost half a million players that played the game around the launch, but only three weeks ago the peak was at around 15k players.
A Possible In-Game Glitch Confused the Helldivers
On September 29, the displayed number of players in the game was reportedly at almost 110k. However, this number was most likely due to a glitch, as many players reported seeing it for a couple of minutes and then dropping suddenly.
Doughzza noted: “I’m seeing 109446 ATM but on my app, it says only 60k Helldivers are active. I’ve never had the play count get bugged but it says 45k are in the Umlate sector, 31k in the Borgus sector, 13k at Shelt, and the rest elsewhere”.
AtticusAlexander stated: “There were about 20k phantom players that appeared for a few minutes then disappeared again earlier this morning”. Now, if you’re wondering what this player meant by phantom players, well, basically, the number changed so quickly and unnaturally, that it didn’t make sense those were actual players, but instead a glitch. These non-existent players disappeared into thin air, unregistered by anyone other than the eagle-eyed players.
Truth be told, we hope that the future player counts will show at least 110k players in Helldivers 2, as the developers are obviously extremely devoted. The game hasn’t been in this good of a state for a long while. So, the time is right to choose a planet and go liberate it with your fellow divers. For Liberty and Super Earth.