Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Enjoys Series’ Biggest Steam Launch with Over 34,000 Concurrent Players

Arrowhead Game Studios was working on Helldivers 2 for a while, and though the co-op third-person shooter is clearly an ambitious follow-up to its top-down predecessor, few would have predicted that it would go on to enjoy the success that it has seen in the immediate aftermath of its release. 

Helldivers 2 has turned out to be a runaway success for Sony and Arrowhead Game Studios, having attracted an increasingly larger playerbase in the days since its launch. On PC in particular, the co-op third-person shooter has found a sizeable audience, even becoming Sony’s biggest launch on the platform to date.

Helldivers 2 is now Playstation's biggest Steam launch, clocking up over 150,000 concurrent users on the PC platform over the weekend.

Helldivers 2 certainly looked promising in the lead-up to its launch, but the level of success it has enjoyed right off the bat has been a little surprising to see. Upon release, the co-op third-person shooter became Sony’s biggest launch on Steam to date with a peak of over 81,000 concurrent players on the platform – higher than the all-time peaks of megatons like God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, and Horizon Zeo Dawn – and that number has kept on climbing since then.

Looks like PlayStation’s PC strategy is paying off. Helldivers 2, the third-person co-op shooter that launched Thursday, has become the company’s biggest Steam launch to date.

has a New Game Plus mode, but not all progress is transferred into it. New Game Plus is a common feature in RPGs with level-based progression. It allows players who have beaten the game to restart it, maintaining some of their progress. NG+ can include extra content, new difficulty levels, or, at the very least, an opportunity to make different story and character choices. In short, it's a way to keep repeat playthroughs fresh, and has been a staple in the series for quite some time.

Helldivers 2 is less than a day old, and it’s already proving to be an impressive success story for Sony and developer Arrowhead Game Studios. In fact, on Steam in particular, the co-op third-person shooter has found a sizeable audience.

Helldivers 2 may not have the mass market cache that other first-party Sony properties like God of War, Spider-Man, The Last of Us, or others have, but the co-op third-person shooter is still a game that many have been looking forward to for a while now, and the excitement that it has generated is being reflected in its players numbers instantly upon launch. 

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has become the series' most successful launch on Steam over its launch weekend.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has earned the largest launch on Steam for any game released by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.

Stealth tactics game Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, a PC game with Overwhelmingly Positive reviews, is currently available for 90% off on Steam. Steam has established itself as the top digital distribution platform for PC gamers, and its incredible deals are a big reason why.

The release of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has made it one of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's biggest launches to date, surpassing the last peak record of concurrent players on the Steam platform. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the eighth mainline game in the long-running franchise, featuring the same turn-based RPG combat and open-world exploration as its predecessor, Yakuza: Like a Dragon.