Helldivers 2 Is Fastest-Selling PlayStation Game Ever

As part of Sony's earnings announcement, the company revealed that Helldivers 2 sold 12 million units at launch to become the fastest-selling PlayStation game of all time. The sales figure covers sales of the game over its first 12 weeks across PS5 and PC.

The previous fastest-selling PlayStation game ever was God of War Ragnarok, which sold 5 million copies in the first week.

Johan Pilestedt, the CEO of developer Arrowhead Studios, said, "What a massive achievement from everyone involved in realizing Helldivers 2. A massive thank you to the community for your support, passion, and dedication in the fight for democracy!"

He added that the number of Helldivers 2 copies sold so far (12 million) exceeds the population of Sweden (10.5 million), where Arrowhead is based. The game has about 150,000 players in Sweden, Pilestedt added.

As announced in the Sony earnings call, we have sold over 12M units!
It's crazy to think that there are more Helldivers than there are Swedes 🤯
What a massive achievement from everyone involved in realizing @Helldivers2. A massive thank you to the community for your support,…
— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) May 14, 2024

Sony said during its earnings briefing that Helldivers 2 "has been a hit that far exceeded expectations." Helldivers 2 is now Sony's biggest "hit" on PC to date. Sony added that the game "contributed significantly" to sales and profit during the company's last quarter.

Additionally, Helldivers 2 helped boost the number of monthly active users on PlayStation to 118 million, up 9% year-over-year. Total play time on PlayStation in March specifically rose by 15% year-over-year. And for the entire fourth quarter that ended on March 31, total play time on PlayStation was second highest in Sony's history, only behind Q4 of FY2020, which saw a big spike thanks in part to stay-at-home orders due to the pandemic.

Sony owns the Helldivers IP but not developer Arrowhead. Arrowhead and Sony made headlines recently due to the requirement that Steam users create a PSN account to continue playing. Due to overwhelming backlash, Sony changed course. Now, Helldivers 2 PC players are making it their mission to get the game's user-review rating back to where it was prior to the controversy.

Helldivers 2 has been the the most-downloaded PS5 game in the US since it launched in February. In the US, it is the No. 1 best-selling game of the year so far.