Helldivers 2 concurrent player cap increased to 700,000 as CEO says wait times will now be 'much more bearable'

Soldier saluting in front of an explosion
(Image credit: PlayStation LLC)

After some pretty hefty wait times and server issues, Helldivers 2 CEO Johan Pilestedt finally confirms that concurrent player counts have been increased. 

"I have one final update for tonight," Pilestedt announced in a tweet. "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 making some final improvements for the weekend."

Since its launch, Helldivers 2 has had some severe issues with severe capacity and stability as well as wait times. Earlier this week, the team-based third-person shooter capped its concurrent players at around 450,000 in an attempt to help resolve server instability. Several server-related issues had led to "some mission payouts failing, some players being kicked to their ships, or being logged out," according to a Discord message. 

The team at Arrowhead Game Studios has also been working tirelessly to add new patches in another attempt to control issues. One patch that was rolled out last week for PC and PlayStation 5 aimed to help players who wanted to spread democracy in a group. It fixed a bug in which the game would crash if they had too many friends

Despite all of the bugs and issues, Helldivers 2 has been incredibly popular. So far, it's managed to overtake Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA 5) and Starfield in terms of all-time highest player count on Steam.  The third-person shooter managed to hit a staggering 411,259 active players on February 19, 2024, according to the third-party Steam monitoring tool SteamDB

It's very likely that after the most recent update, increasing concurrent players, and stabilizing servers, Helldivers 2 will see more players log on to fight against the Automatons and Terminids for the glory of Super Earth. 

For more excellent games, be sure to check out the best multiplayer PC games as well as the best FPS games available right now. 

Elie Gould
Features Writer

Elie is a Features Writer for TechRadar Gaming, here to write about anything new or slightly weird. Before writing for TRG, Elie studied for a Masters at Cardiff University JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs or editing the gaming section for their student publications. 

Elie’s first step into gaming was through Pokémon but they've taken the natural next step in the horror genre. Any and every game that would keep you up at night is on their list to play - despite the fact that one of Elie’s biggest fears is being chased. 

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