Helldivers 2 is a smash hit by any standard, but as online shooter fans well-know, huge player count can also cause major drawbacks. Recently, Arrowhead Game Studio's latest game hit a staggering 411,359 concurrent players amid server stability issues as the game struggles to accommodate so many new faces.

As shown by SteamCharts, the PvE shooter has smashed the peak concurrent player counts for many other high-profile games, most recently GTA 5. The ongoing server problems have resulted in players suffering long queue times or mysterious bugs as a result. For example, on the Helldivers 2 subreddit, a popular post (apparently from an official QA source) indicates that a black-screen glitch that players have been reporting is related to servers being at capacity.

Over the weekend, Arrowhead instituted a temporary cap of 450k simultaneous players (between both PS5 and Steam) to try to deal with a massive player spike. A recent update from Arrowhead's production director indicates that there's an update coming that will help solve some of the issues, though that director also emphasizes that the situation will improve "over the days and weeks to come."

In GameSpot's Helldivers 2 review, our critic Jordan Ramée praised the game's gunplay and randomly-generated missions, stating that it manages to achieve "the day-one dream for a live-service game: You want to keep playing it."

"Helldivers 2 has plenty of tense moments against gargantuan bugs and hulking tank-like machines, but the entire experience is largely meant to make you feel good and have a laugh with friends, a refreshing notion for how darkly serious most major shooters are today," he continued. "This provides Helldivers 2 with a sensation of potential longevity and lasting power I haven't felt from most new live-service games in recent years. Helldivers 2 is just a really good time, and it banks on that being enough to convince you to stick around for a long time. Frankly, I'm sold--it's the most fun I've had in a new shooter in years."