GSD data tracks physical and digital sales of games from major publishers. The recently released data shows that 3.65 million console and PC games were sold across the UK in March which represented a 26% rise compared to last year. Also, it was revealed that Helldivers 2 was the best-selling video game for the second month.
The GSD report which was published by Gamesindustry.biz explained that after eight weeks, the game has remained the top-selling game in the UK. The result also puts the game ahead of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 after the same length in the market.
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However, it is important to mention that a direct comparison of both games may not be ideal because Spider-Man 2 retailed at $70 and was released exclusively on PS5 while Helldivers 2 retailed at $40 and was released on both PS5 and PC.
It is believed by many that the video game market is saturated. The result is often evident in the lower sales performance of games than they would have if AAA releases were evenly spaced out. For example, Japanese RPGs Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and Rise of the Ronin were released three weeks apart which arguably impacted their sales.
According to GSD data, the result was a narrow success for Dragon’s Dogma 2 which debuted on the chart at number 3. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, on the other hand, ended the month sitting at number 5. Games like Rise of the Ronin (position 21) and Princess Peach: Showtime (position 30) were further down the charts than anticipated.
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The reason was partly because of Steam’s Command & Conquer titles contained in its 17-title bundle release. Two of the games in the bundle—Red Alert 2 and Generals—made it to the top ten chart for the month of March while ten of the games in the bundle made it to the top 20.
Helldivers 2 has maintained steady concurrent player numbers
The success of Helldivers 2 has made many question Sony’s exclusivity rule and wonder if the company was shooting itself in the foot with its exclusivity rules. Developed by Arrowhead Game Studios, Helldivers 2 is the first game from Sony’s first-party studio to launch on a platform other than the PlayStation console.
Helldivers 2 did not only launch simultaneously on PS5 and PC, but the game also allowed crossplay between both platforms. In other words, players on PS5 and PC can band together to form a team. The game peaked at 458,709 concurrent players on Steam according to SteamDB data. That number officially eclipsed the concurrent player count of all the other games Sony has released on PC put together.
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It is strongly believed that Helldivers 2’s peak concurrent player count on Steam would have surpassed the 400,000 mark if not for the server challenges that held the game down for several days post-launch.
For weeks, Helldivers 2 has maintained a peak player count of over 100,000. At the time of writing, the active player count was 199,249 while the 24-hour peak was 345,188. Since its release on February 8, 2024, Arrowhead has continued to support the game with new content.
The studio recently released the Warbond update which added new cosmetics, weapons, and emotes to the game. Arrowhead has also spiced up the game with new enemies (including flying bug-like enemies called Shriekers) and machines (including exo-suits, famously called mechs).
The success of Helldivers 2 will likely inspire Sony to launch more of its first-party titles on PCs. In the third quarter financial report, Sony’s President Hiroki Totoki said he wants to push the company’s first-party titles to multiple platforms to help improve the margin from its gaming division.
“In the past, we wanted to popularize consoles and the first-party titles’ main purpose was to make the console popular,” Hiroki Totoki said. “It is true, but there is a synergy to it. So, if you have strong first-party content, not only with our console but also on other platforms like computers, first-party [content] can be grown with multi-platform, and that can help operating profit to improve. So that is another one we want to proactively work on.”
“I personally think there are opportunities out there for improvement of margins, so I would like to go aggressive in improving our margin performance.”
