The Helldivers 2 development team had consistently placed confidence in the game they had created, yet they certainly did not anticipate it to evolve into the massive success it became.
When asked if they foresaw the unexpected cooperative shooter becoming a genuine contender for Game of the Year – and in GameRadar’s case, our top game of the year – game director Michael Eriksson recalled feeling quite optimistic. “Yes, we did,” he shared. “In fact, when we brought on our current COO, Linda, she asked during an interview, perhaps two months prior to launch, something like ‘what’s your scenario planning for the release? Are you ready for a significant success?’ And I thought, ‘yes, we are ready for having 150,000 players at peak concurrent users.’ That’s far beyond what we estimated.”
The team at Arrowhead clearly held ambitious goals for its shooter, which features a community of millions pretending to be democracy-spreading fascists who ‘liberate’ insects and robots. However, even the studio’s highest hopes were exceeded. Within a week, the game had remarkably gathered over 800,000 players concurrently, resulting in queues that lasted for days.
“We had not anticipated that,” Eriksson continued. “I believe we had a lot of faith in the game, but we still underestimated how much players would enjoy it. So while we were believers, we were still taken aback and astonished by the response.”
What is even more impressive is how Helldivers 2, in spite of various controversies both large and small, has managed to maintain its presence in the spotlight for months during an era where live-service games often fade into obscurity in the blink of an eye. Just this week, the Helldivers 2 Omens of Tyranny update