Helldivers 2 was released on 8 February 2024 for PlayStation 5 and Windows. It was a critical and commercial success, having sold in excess of 15 million copies. Considered among the best video games of 2024, it was nominated for and won a number of awards. On 26 August 2025, Helldivers 2 released on the Xbox Series X/S.
Gameplay
A player using the Orbital Laser Stratagem to battle Terminids
Helldivers 2 is a shooter game played primarily from a third-person perspective.[2] Players complete operations consisting of 1-3 procedurally generated levels (missions), conducting tasks within the missions (objectives), while fending off hordes of enemies. Players choose the difficulty level of their operations, ranging from level 1 ("Trivial") to level 10 ("Super Helldive").[3]
Players enter missions by dropping onto planets from their Super Destroyer starship in a transportation device called a "Hellpod". A core gameplay feature carried over from the first game is the use of Stratagems, powerful equipment which must be called in from their Super Destroyer by executing a sequence of directional button or arrow key inputs. Players may select up to four stratagems in advance to bring into the mission, as well as a "Booster" which affects the whole team.[4]
Helldivers 2 features cooperative multiplayer with up to four players,[2] but does not include a dedicated single-player campaign.[5] It also provides optional cross-play.[6]Friendly fire is always on.[7] In the initial days of release, gameplay involved staff at the studio observing players and influencing gameplay in real time.[8] The game features live service content updates.
Players can obtain in-game currency which may be discovered during missions or awarded by completing operations, missions, and objectives.[9] As players gain experience and progress in levels, they unlock different weapons and Stratagems to use during missions.[10] Players can also collect samples during missions, which are used to upgrade the player's Super Destroyer, providing advantages during gameplay.[11] By completing operations, players also contribute to the collective progress of "Major Orders", which are mass-collaborative missions that directly affect the outcome of the Galactic War in-game.[4][12]
Warbonds
Helldivers 2 has a battle pass system called "Warbonds" that never expire.[13] Warbonds can be purchased with in-game currency known as "Super Credits", which players can obtain in-game, purchase via microtransactions, or unlock as part of the Warbonds themselves.
As of 3 September 2025, the following Warbonds have been released: "Helldivers Mobilize"; "Steeled Veterans"; "Cutting Edge"; "Democratic Detonation"; "Polar Patriots"; "Viper Commandos"; "Freedom's Flame"; "Chemical Agents"; "Truth Enforcers"; "Urban Legends"; "Servants of Freedom"; "Borderline Justice"; "Masters of Ceremony"; "Force of Law"; "Control Group"; "Obedient Democracy Support Troopers";[c] and "Dust Devils".[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][excessive citations]
Synopsis
Setting
Helldivers 2 takes place in the 22nd century, one hundred years after the triumph of Super Earth, a self-described managed democracy, over the Bugs, Cyborgs, and Illuminate during the First Galactic War. Humanity seized faster-than-light (FTL) travel technology from the defeated Illuminate, and used it to conquer the galaxy during a period known as the Great Democratization. Humanity also discovered that the decomposing corpses of the Bugs contain a unique and highly valuable resource known as E-710 which is used for FTL travel. Bug farms are established on human-colonized worlds, and after decades of genetic engineering and accelerated evolution, they become known as Terminids.[24]
Canonical State/States Of War(2184-PRESENT)
The Second Galactic War
The events of Helldivers 2 begin in the year 2184 after the Super Earth Armed Forces (SEAF) fail to contain the Terminids, which have escaped their farms, causing widespread chaos and destruction. Simultaneously, a new threat emerges in the form of the Automatons, creations of the defeated Cyborgs, intending to get revenge against humanity. In response, Super Earth declares war and mobilizes the Helldivers, an elite task force, to combat the threats. Environmental storytelling is prevalent throughout the game, with various logs, notes, and propaganda messages available for players to find during gameplay.[25]
The initial Automaton expedition culminated in battles on Malevelon Creek, resulting in two months of fighting and high casualties, estimated to be around 2 million, before the planet was finally taken.[26][27] Meanwhile, an effort to destroy the Terminid presence on several worlds fails, and planet Meridia becomes a Terminid Supercolony. Using a substance called Dark Fluid, the Helldivers trigger a planetary collapse on Meridia, transforming it into a wormhole.[28] Not long after the destruction of Meridia, an interstellar cloud of spores called "The Gloom" emerged deep within Terminid space, terraforming planets within and birthing new variants of Terminids.
As a result of many costly battles, the Helldivers embarked on an expansive project to construct the Democracy Space Station (DSS)[29], a massive orbital battle station capable of supporting Helldiver campaigns with ordinance and soldier optimization. The Helldivers were deployed to defend the construction of the DSS, while destroying Automatons to utilize their technology and harvesting E-710 from the Terminids for fuel. After several weeks, the DSS was completed, and the Helldivers were granted the ability to vote on where to periodically deploy it.
The Invasion of Super Earth
On 12 December 2184, humanity discovered that the Illuminate, an ancient and technologically advanced alien race thought to be extinct, returned and began to invade Super Earth's colonies.[30] The Helldivers repelled the Illuminate in the bloody Battle of Calypso. However, the wormhole produced from the destruction of Meridia, dubbed the "Meridian Singularity", suddenly began moving towards Super Earth, destroying multiple planets in its path.
Though the Helldivers were able to halt the Singularity's advance, an Illuminate invasion fleet, the "Great Host", emerged from within[31] and ultimately launched an invasion on Super Earth.[32] SEAF and the Helldivers successfully repelled the Illuminate invasion, but at the cost of tremendous civilian and military casualties and the destruction of all but two of Super Earth's Mega Cities.[33]
Campaign into The Gloom
Following the Battle of Super Earth, the remnants of the Illuminate invasion fleet retreated to the south, heavily entrenching themselves on various planets. In response, Super Earth began construction of a new Super Destroyer fleet. In the summer of 2185, all three factions launched a coordinated offensive, pushing the Helldivers to the brink before the new fleet arrived on 26 August 2185. The Helldivers were then ordered to perform an expedition into the Terminid hive worlds that lay within the expanding Gloom. The Battle of Oshuane resulted in the highest Helldiver casualty rate of the war thus far.[34]
Station-81 game
On 9 May 2025, channel "S81-Satcom" was added to the official Helldivers 2Discord server by Arrowhead as an alternate reality game. The original message linked to a YouTube livestream from the perspective of four different satellites orbiting Super Earth, with Station-81 being offline. The goal to reactivate Station-81 was completed by users working together to recalibrate datablocks. This served to reveal the Illuminate's final assault on Super Earth, which was caught on Station-81's cameras emerging from the Meridian singularity, before Station-81 would be destroyed.[35]
Development and release
Helldivers 2 major update release timeline
2024
Release
Update 1 - Escalation of Freedom
Update 2 - Omens of Tyranny
2025
Update 3 - Heart of Democracy
Update 4 - Into the Unjust
On 3 December 2020, Arrowhead Game Studios revealed that work had started on a new project for PlayStation 5. It was confirmed that the game would be a third-person shooter.[36] Like the first game, Helldivers 2 runs on the discontinuedAutodesk Stingray game engine (originally known as Bitsquid). Arrowhead Game Studios founder Johan Pilestedt confirmed on social media that "The project started before [Stingray] was discontinued," adding, "Our crazy engineers had to do everything, with no support to build the game to parity with other engines."[37][38][39]
On 13 September 2021, Helldivers 2 was mentioned in a GeForce Now leak.[40] The game was teased in a TikTok post showing Arrowhead's social media manager starting their workday, which is followed by a series of posts from fans demanding them to release the game.[41] On 18 August 2022, a 12-second clip of gameplay was leaked on Twitter, but was later removed.[42][43]
On 24 May 2023, Helldivers 2 was announced during the 2023 PlayStation Showcase, with a slated release of sometime in 2023.[44] On 6 July 2023, a trailer showcasing gameplay was released.[4][7] On 30 July 2023, the game received an M rating by the Entertainment Software Rating Board for "blood and gore" and "intense violence".[45] On 14 September 2023, gameplay was shown in a PlayStation State of Play event, and it was announced that the game would release on 8 February 2024.[46] Pre-orders became available on 22 September 2023.[47] On 8 February 2024, the game was released on the PlayStation Store and Steam.[48]
Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt revealed at the Game Developers Conference in March 2025, the United Nations contacted the development team regarding giving a talk related to the concept of psychological defense against manipulation. Pilestedt stated, "We do it all in fun and good spirits, and we actually try to get people to recognize the science of what is a totalitarian state. If you start wearing the same uniform as everybody else and do salutes constantly, you might be in a totalitarian regime".[49]
On 3 July 2025, Arrowhead Game Studios and Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that the game would be released for the Xbox Series X/S consoles on 26 August 2025. The Xbox version was developed by Nixxes Software, a studio under PlayStation Studios known for its expertise in porting games to other platforms. The release features full cross-platform play, enabling users across Xbox, PlayStation, and Windows to play together.[50]Helldivers 2 is the first game published by PlayStation Studios to be released on the Xbox platform.[51] The release also coincided with the launch of Gears of War: Reloaded on the PlayStation 5; the Gears of War franchise had been a Microsoft exclusive since its debut in 2006. Some publications deemed the release of Helldivers 2 on Xbox and Gears of War on PlayStation as further proof of the end of the "console wars".[52][53]
On 12 August 2025, a trailer for the launch of Helldivers 2 on Xbox also teased a potential crossover with Halo 3: ODST.[55] On 19 August 2025, the crossover was confirmed with the "Helldivers 2 x Halo: ODST Legendary Warbond" releasing on 26 August 2025.[56]
Helldivers 2 received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[57][58] In Japan, four critics from Famitsu gave the game a total score of 30 out of 40.[63]
Upon release, the game experienced a large influx of players, leading to widespread server and login issues for the first two weeks of release.[75] By the third week of release, the player cap was increased to "a whopping 700,000 concurrent users" according to Wesley Yin-Poole of IGN.[76]
Aaron Bayne of Push Square described the game as "a riotous affair, offering up best-in-class gunplay" and a "truly epic and often cinematic experience, mixed in with one of the best co-op gameplay romps currently available." However, he criticized the game for the server issues and crashes that players experienced after release.[71]
Helldivers 2 has been compared to the 1997 science fiction action film Starship Troopers; both are satirical comedies featuring a militaristic regime fighting against a race of large insectoids.[77][78]
U.S. Army veteran and journalist Clay Beyersdorfer stated, "That's the trick: Helldivers 2 works because it doesn't glamorize war. It pokes fun at it. It doesn't try to make players feel like elite operators. It makes you feel like a cog in a machine that only half works and is pointed in the wrong direction".[79]
Helldivers 2 has been listed among the best video games of 2024.[80][81][82][83]
Sales
On February 11, 2024, Johan Pilestedt, then-CEO of Arrowhead Games, announced that Helldivers 2 had sold approximately 1 million units.[84]
Helldivers 2 was the largest launch of any PlayStation Studios game available on PC.[85] Arrowhead stated that the game's success has greatly exceeded their expectations.[86] Following its initial success, Arrowhead Studios announced its intention to scale its studio and team to accelerate its post-launch content plans.[87][88] Pilestedt reacted to the game's ongoing success by stating that he hopes to see Helldivers become considered as iconic as PlayStation's other intellectual properties such as Uncharted, God of War, and Horizon.[89]
In Europe, the United Kingdom, and Canada, Helldivers 2 was the best-selling game of February 2024.[90][91][92]Helldivers 2 remained the best selling game in Canada in April 2024.[93]
By 24 February 2024, the game was estimated to have sold over 3 million units and became the most actively played game on the PlayStation Network, surpassing Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 and Fortnite.[94] By 15 March 2024, Helldivers 2 was estimated to have sold 8 million units and reached 450,000 concurrent players on Steam.[95] By 5 May 2024, 12 million units of the game had been sold, making it PlayStation's fastest selling video game of all time as well as Sony's most successful Windows title.[96] Game sales crossed 15 million by November 2024.[97]
Helldivers 2 was the third highest selling video game of 2024 in the United States.[98][99] It was also a top seller and the most played game on Steam in 2024.[100] The game reportedly sold nearly 1 million copies within the first week of its release on Xbox Series X/S.[101][102]
At launch, Helldivers 2 did not require PC players to log into a PlayStation Network (PSN) account, allowing players to skip the integration despite a line on startup stating that a PSN account is required.[113] On May 3, 2024, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that the PC version of Helldivers 2 on Steam would mandate users to sign in with a PSN account, taking effect for new players on May 6, 2024 and required for existing players by June 4, 2024. SIE stated that a PSN login is necessary to "[uphold] the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games", and that this requirement was not implemented at launch due to technical issues.[114] The announcement was met with criticism.[115] Additionally, many players called out that official documentation from Sony claimed that PSN accounts were optional for games on PC, with this statement changing to an ambiguous "some games" statement[116][117] after players were directed to contact Sony support by Pilestedt.[118] On 4 May, the listing on Steam was updated to disallow sales to 177 territories where PSN is not available.[119]
Pilestedt apologized for the sudden change, stating on Twitter that "I hope we will make it up and regain the trust by providing a continued great game experience".[120] Arrowhead developers stated that they were on the side of the players and one community manager even called for the player base to negatively review the game on Steam,[citation needed] leading to players review bombing the game; as of 4 May, nearly 53% of all posted reviews were negative,[121][122][123] with over 84,000 negative reviews on Steam.[124] Sony announced on May 5, 2024 that they would not be moving forward with the account linking requirements, and promised to work with Arrowhead to find alternate solutions to protect players.[125] Regional restrictions on Helldivers 2 were lifted alongside God of War Ragnarök, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, and The Last of Us Part II Remastered on June 14, 2025.[126]
Film adaptation
In January 2025, Sony Pictures announced during Sony's CES 2025 conference that they are working on a film based on the game. As of September 21, we have heard nothing on the development of said film.[127]
On 10 September 2025, American right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated whilst addressing an audience on the campus of Utah Valley University or UVU. The unfired bullet casings, including the bullet used, were emblazoned with various inscriptions; one of the unfired bullets was engraved with the words "Hey fascist! Catch! ↑→↓↓↓". The arrow sequence "↑→↓↓↓", is the input code in Helldivers 2 for calling in the Eagle 500kg Bomb stratagem.[128][129] The incident resulted in the subreddit "r/Helldivers" being locked temporarily due to a surge of related discussions, and some called on Arrowhead Game Studios to respond.[130][131]
Notes
↑ Additional work by Toadman Interactive.[1] Xbox Series X/S version by Nixxes Software.
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