Topline
Sony revealed in its latest earnings call that “Helldivers 2,” a multiplayer third-person shooter game, became PlayStation’s fastest-selling video game ever by selling 12 million units in its first 12 weeks, one of the video game’s first official sales figures that puts its meteoric rise into perspective.
“Helldivers 2” is available on PlayStation 5 and PC. (Photo Illustration by Thiago Prudencio/SOPA … [+] Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Key Facts
Sony said during an earnings call Tuesday that the sci-fi shooter “far exceeded expectations,” with cumulative sales for copies on PS5 and PC reaching 12 million copies in its first 12 weeks on sale, surpassing 2022’s “God Of War Ragnarök.”
“God Of War Raganarök,” a flagship PlayStation exclusive sold for the PlayStation 4 and 5, sold 11 million copies in its first 12 weeks on sale.
“Helldivers 2” sales likely benefited from the game’s $39.99 price tag—$30 cheaper than other AAA titles on PlayStation 5 such as “God Of War Ragnarök,” “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III“ and “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.”
The third-person shooter also had the advantage of being available on both PS5 and PC at launch, managing to bring in a peak of 458,709 concurrent players on Steam—a digital video game distribution service and storefront used by PC players—in February.
The video game became Sony’s biggest PC hit title ever, contributing “significantly to sales and profit” in the company’s last quarter.
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Big Number
“Helldivers 2” concurrent player peak of 458,709 is not far off from concurrent player records recorded by other popular games on Steam like “Terraria” (489,886) and “Call of Duty: Warzone” (491,670).
Tangent
Sony’s stock closed up more than 6% Tuesday at $81.23. The company’s stock hit a low for the year last week, when it closed at $75.37.
Key Background
“Helldivers 2” released Feb. 8 to a wildly strong reception from players, who crashed servers and eventually provoked the game’s developer, Arrowhead Game Studios, to cap concurrent players at 450,000 to help stabilize their servers. The developer eventually upgraded their concurrent user capacity for the game, which tasks squads of up to four players with battling against two alien factions for control of a galaxy’s planets. Arrowhead has largely received support from “Helldivers 2” players for its accommodation of user concerns. When a decision was made to require PC players to link their accounts to PlayStation Network or create an account to play the game, Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt said in a tweet his team was “talking solutions with PlayStation” to address outrage over the requirement, which was later dropped over concerns of PC players who don’t have access to PlayStation Network in their countries.
Further Reading
Sony Is Making A Truly Terrible Mistake With ‘Helldivers 2’ — Update: Sony Reverses Course (Forbes)
Steam Reviews Are A Weapon, But One Of The Only Ones Players Can Wield (Forbes)
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