Video Gamer is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
Helldivers 2 and Palworld are the two biggest video game success stories of the year so far. Although two completely different experiences, they are both duking it out for dominance on Steam. Arrowhead has just kicked Pocketpair from the top of the Steam best-sellers charts, and the Helldivers 2 dev plans to ‘beef up’ is further bad news for Palworld’s waning popularity.
Arrowhead has not finalized its Helldivers 2 roadmap, but they have outlined upcoming content that includes new biomes and enemies. Everything added post-launch will be free to enjoy, and the patch notes for the sci-fi multiplayer game’s most recent update include fixes for major game-breaking issues on both PS5 and PC.
On the other hand, Pocketpair has finalized its Palworld roadmap, but the developer is admittedly struggling with the game’s success because they are only a small studio in Japan. Pocketpair has reassured fans worried about Palworld dying due to extreme server costs, but the player count is steadily dropping while Helldivers 2 is growing.
Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead plans to ‘beef up’
Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead is looking to significantly grow. The studio’s CEO, Johan Pilestedt, posted on Twitter that ‘With the success of @helldivers2, we are going to start looking for more amazing developers that can help us accelerate and beef up our content plans’.
Open jobs on the studio’s website include gameplay programmer, engineers, and a production designer. Arrowhead is hunting for a Monetization designer, too, but they insist ‘we are adamantly not making a pay-to-win game’. What Arrowhead intends for monetization isn’t specified, but it will supposedly reflect their goals of ‘modeling a different type of live service’ experience.
Arrowhead getting bigger is only good news for the Helldivers 2 community. Pilestedt has admitted that the studio is ‘suffering from success,’ and they are ‘hellbent on making this the best coop game of all time’. To deliver on its goals, Arrowhead needs to expand as they are not a AAA studio just like Pocketpair for Palworld.
While they are two different games, Palworld and Helldivers 2 have been butting heads battling for dominance on Steam. Palworld was previously top of the Steam best-sellers charts, but now Helldivers 2 is number one with Palworld kicked down to eighth place just ahead of Baldur’s Gate 3.
In further bad news for the survival epic, the Palworld player count has significantly dropped on Xbox and Steam while Helldivers 2 is getting bigger and bigger. Palworld’s 24-hour peak daily player count has dropped to 574,423 as of February 14th, meanwhile, Helldivers 2 has climbed to 203,644 and seems to still be ascending.
Even more bad news for Palworld is that it has further been knocked down a peg on the SteamDB charts for most concurrent players. It was previously second behind Counter-Strike 2 only, but now it has been surpassed by DOTA 2 as of February 14th with Apex Legends and PUBG Battlegrounds slowly creeping up from behind.
Although Palworld doesn’t need to worry about Helldivers 2 specifically, it has been a while since the game’s last update and the noticeable decline on Steam, Xbox, and Twitch viewership may be a little concerning. Still, the future for Palworld should be bright as Pocketpair has great news of their own, and more bosses are currently in development.
