Helldivers 2 has sold over 12 million copies within 12 weeks of release. It is now the fastest selling PlayStation game, surpassing previous record holder God Of War Ragnarok.
Helldivers 2 is also PlayStation’s biggest PC game to date.
This was revealed in the financial year 2023 report for Sony.
Sony Interactive Entertainment interim CEO Hiroki Totoki namedropped Helldivers 2 during the earnings call, saying it “has been a hit that far exceeded expectations” and contributed largely to sales and profit for the final quarter of financial year 2023.
More live service games will be coming to PlayStation this year, including Destiny 2 The Final Shape expansion and Concord, the multiplayer game by Firewalk Studios, set to release this year.
Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt chimed on the achievement, tweeting that “it’s crazy to think that there are more Helldivers than there are Swedes”. Arrowhead Game Studios is the developer behind Helldivers 2, and are based in Sweden, a country with a population of about 11 million. That’s about three times smaller of a population compared to Malaysia (30+ million).
It’s also not crazy to think that the sales of Helldivers 2 sales were also helped from the game being initially widely available on PC. Recently, PlayStation decided to stop sales of Helldivers 2 to countries without PlayStation Network (PSN) support to enforce all PC players to link a PSN account. PSN accounts cannot be created outside of countries where PlayStation consoles are officially available. The requirement has since been rescinded, but the upcoming PC release of Ghost Of Tsushima – Director’s Cut is now limited to countries with PSN support.
PlayStation makes up the majority of Sony’s earnings, and if they want to see more sales like how Helldivers 2 has achieved, maybe they should consider supporting and do business in more regions.