In the internet gaming age we live in, if you have a game with massive multiplayer capabilities, such as with shooter titles, you’ll want to have server space for as many people as possible. After all, you want as many people as possible to play your title, and having the server space to do so can ensure that more people come into your title once positive word of mouth spreads around. That has been the case with Helldivers 2 since its launch, almost to a shocking degree. In fact, it’s done so well since launch that its servers have been maxed out pretty consistently.
On the one hand, that shows how many people were playing the game and wanted to KEEP playing the game, which is a huge thing many titles would love to say. However, that also meant that not as many people could buy the game and jump right in, as the rooms were literally full. We can personally attest to at least one person “regretting buying the game” because they got it and yet couldn’t join a server.
However, Johan Pilestedt, the CEO of the game’s developer, Arrowhead Game Studios, revealed that they increased the server size for Helldivers 2:
“I have one final update for tonight,” he wrote in a Twitter post. “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 weekend.”
The irony of this is many-fold. First, the fact that this game has been steadily having about 500K players playing is interesting as this wasn’t the “must-have title of 2024” when it was announced and further showed off. It looked like “just another shooter,” but it has proven to be much more than that.
Then, you have to consider the fact that the game’s players were so dedicated to the title that they were coming up with clever ways to stay logged in so they wouldn’t have to wait to get back in. They were even logged into the game overnight so they would wake up and just jump back in. Arrowhead has since stopped that activity as it’s not “democratic,” and they’ll likely do other things like continuing to boost the servers so that everyone can enjoy it.
Heck, even the CEO has said that new players should “wait to buy the game” until the servers are expanded. That’s dedication to player satisfaction.
