Helldivers 2's Super Earth Illuminate Invasion Spikes Playercount Impressively

Forbes

20-05-2025

Helldivers 2
What could be the grand finale of Helldivers 2 is nigh, as Illuminate aliens have invaded Super Earth itself in an effort to exterminate mankind. And if any game might shut down completely if this happened, it's Helldivers and its impressively meta storylines (shut down for a little while, anyway).
The new update brings new weapons, new Illuminate units and new city maps as the community bands together to push out the aliens and save the homeworld in a storyline where Mars and its colonies have already been completely glassed.
It's one of Helldivers 2's biggest updates since launch, possibly its biggest period, and after it went live today, the playercount of the game has rocketed up like old times when 'story' events rallied players. The last time this happened was the original arrival of the Illuminate back in December of 2024, the first time the third race was seen in the game.
That spiked players to 150,000 concurrents on Steam, the highest since its 450,000 launch. Now, the invasion of Super Earth event may be about to pass it, currently at 124,000 players and climbing as I write this at 9:30 AM ET, not exactly prime gaming time.
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Even during a 'bad stretch' Helldivers 2 is still doing 30,000 players a day at worst, and closer to 50,000-70,000 at nightly peaks. It remains one of the rare live service success stories that Sony has had amidst failures like Concord and cancellations like The Last of Us Factions. But developer Arrowhead is not an in-house studio and has announced that its next game will not be in collaboration with Sony and will instead be 100% funded and published by the studio itself, thanks to how much Helldivers 2 has earned.
Helldivers 2 is not going away, but it's a little hard to imagine what story narrative could top the literal invasion of Super Earth by the Illuminate. I said the game might shut off if players lose as a joke but I mean, it's not impossible they might play this card at least for a short while (obviously they are not going to just shutter the game). Or the idea could be that this is the biggest win in Helldivers history, a patriotic victory for the ages.
Whatever happens, it seems like now is the time to jump in and see what's going on if you're a lapsed player that may not have played since closer to launch or the last big update. Super Earth needs you, soldier.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.