Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 has achieved overwhelming success since launch in early February 2024, attracting hundreds of thousands of concurrent players, all jumping in for alien-smashing multiplayer combat. But while players have praised the game, and continue to return for new missions, Arrowhead has struggled to keep up with demand over the last week.
On launch, the game was immediately hit with server issues impacting matchmaking. While these were addressed, early reviews for the game inspired fresh waves of players to take up arms, again flooding the game’s servers. Arrowhead worked quickly to improve server capacity, upping concurrent player allowances repeatedly, despite the team being “completely exhausted.”
“I am completely exhausted by the success,” Johan Pilestedt, Arrowhead CEO recently said on Twitter / X. “So is the team, many, many late nights, on-calls, emergency meetings, discussions around server capacity, shards, capacity units, CPU utilization, login rates and CCU. Tired, but very, very pleased.”
Read: Helldivers 2 Review – Glory to Super Earth
In the latest update on progress, the Arrowhead team has now confirmed an additional server capacity increase, with 450,000 players now able to log in concurrently. This is technically a cap, however, as it does appear player interest is still increasing, causing issues with mission payouts failing. Some players have also reported log outs, and being returned to their ships.
“Our team is working around the clock to solve these issues,” Arrowhead confirmed via Discord (as surfaced by Wario64). “While we’ve been able to mitigate some of the causes, we are still struggling to keep up with the scaling that is needed to accommodate all our Helldivers.”
According to the SteamDB charts, Helldivers 2 has managed to hit a peak player base of 388,754 on PC alone – and given plenty of players are also jumping in on PlayStation 5, you can understand the immense load on server capacity.
As it stands, Arrowhead is continuously working to improve capacity for the game, with staff working around the clock to improve the player experience, and management reportedly seeking immediate staff to fill gaps, and allow for some relief. Those who have trouble logging into Helldivers 2 over the coming days and weeks should remain patient as Arrowhead works to improve the stability of the smash hit game.
