Live-service is a broad term that can encompass a lot, but one thing all games under this label have in common is that maintaining a reasonably persistent and continuous player base is crucial.
Helldivers II experienced massive success after its launch back in February. On SteamDB, it peaked at 458,709 concurrent players, and for two months, the number consistently stayed above 300,000. However, this is no longer the reality. Since then, the trend has only gone one way – down, and last week the player count dropped to just 13,345. This is a drop of a full 97% from its peak, a development that should cause concern for the game’s developer, Arrowhead.
Unlike a live-service title like Destiny 2, which, in addition to its ongoing seasonal updates, also operates with large annual expansions, there has been no announcement from Arrowhead that Helldivers II will receive such major expansions.
It is, of course, too early to write off Helldivers II in long terms, and all live-service games experience ebbs and flows, but it seems that Arrowhead’s more static approach to adding new content may not be entirely optimal.