Helldivers 2 is crashing back down to Earth. After a meteoric ascent , and a lengthy tenure at the very top of the live-service market, Arrowhead Game Studios’ player count for its cooperative third-person shooter has been in an extended free fall the last several weeks. Now, player counts are trending downward, and Helldivers 2 needs to figure out a way forward.
Helldivers 2’s galactic war story —the metanarrative that enthralled its players in the first place and allowed them to roleplay as comically evil fascists—has depended upon its massive fandom to come through and complete mandates, such as the termination of billions of bugs at once. However, a recent series of major orders with similar extraordinary requirements have failed , and stratagems that were promised to the community upon their completion have been appropriately withheld, upsetting the dwindling playerbase, which is sitting at a respectable place of about 66,000 players currently. However, according to Eurogamer , this number represents a nearly 65 percent drop from the month before it.
Of course, that number is trending downward for a number of reasons. Live-service games tend to have heavy drop-offs after a honeymoon period and Helldivers 2 enjoyed a lengthier one than most. That was due to the fact that the shifting nature of the game seemed novel at first, with Arrowhead introducing new features, worlds, weapons , and enemies at an incredible and somewhat unprecedented rate.
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