Helldivers 2 raises its concurrent player ceiling to 700,000

23.02.2024 - 10:37 / destructoid.com / Phil Spencer / Sony

Helldiver 2‘s popularity has drawn in players from around the world ready to spread democracy across the galaxy. Unfortunately, Arrowhead’s servers weren’t prepared for just how popular the game was going to be, which has led to frustrating issues.

To minimize problems, the studio temporarily capped the concurrent player count to 450,000 which is a plaster on a large wound, as there are far more players than that who are desperate to blast Automatons. The solution was what we tolerated as Arrowhead works on limiting annoying problems such as mission payout failings and players getting suddenly kicked out mid-session.

Friends of @helldivers2,

I have one final update for tonight. We have updated the max CCU cap to 700,000. Unfortunately, we expect the CCU to reach that level. We believe that the wait times will be much more bearable.

Tomorrow we are doing some final improvements for the…

The cap has now been raised to 700,000 which is an improvement but it’s not quite enough to meet the demand. The studio’s CEO admits this on Twitter, but he hopes it will make wait times a little shorter. He’s been rather open on social media, keeping fans updated on his team’s progress.

For players strapped for cash, or just don’t have that much time to play video games, he suggests holding off on purchasing the title until all problems are solved, which is a level of honesty seldom seen. Even with this warning, Helldiver‘s sequel has managed to sell over a million copies.

Updates and fixes have been released slowly but surely, leading to a gradually improving game. The latest patch was released on February 22 and features minor fixes which the most notable one being the functionality aimed at players who have been attempting to sneak around the concurrent player count ceiling by simply not logging out. Helldivers 2 will now “kick players who remain idle for 15 minutes back to the title screen.”

Helldivers 2 is a win for both Arrowhead and Sony which owns the IP and has been in dire need of a trendy multiplayer shooter of its own. It’s filled with humor and political satire, and its high-action gameplay is frantic yet fair. Though Sony will be gifted with a few Xbox games, the hit sci-fi title has yet to find its way to Microsoft’s console, a situation which Phil Spencer has voiced his unhappiness about.

Surprisingly, I haven’t had many problems logging in and getting into matches during the day in my GMT+2 time zone. Hence, if you’re struggling to play, the solution may be to wait until night or early morning.