What you need to know
- Helldivers 2 dev Arrowhead Game Studios has raised the concurrent user cap on the game's servers to 700,000 players ahead of this weekend.
- This comes after Helldivers 2 has suffered from server capacity issues for the past week, causing many players to get stuck waiting in a queue for hours.
- Earlier this week, Arrowhead also implemented a system that kicks players going AFK to queue dodge and clog server space after 15 minutes of inactivity.
- Helldivers 2 has been at the top of the Steam Top Sellers chart since it was first available to buy, and has routinely broken its concurrent player count records on Valve's platform since it launched on February 8.
Following its launch on February 8, Arrowhead Game Studios new third-person PvE co-op shooter Helldivers 2 rapidly became a colossal hit, and one of 2024's biggest and most popular games. It soared up to 150,000 concurrent players on Steam alone during its launch weekend, and in the weeks that followed, it's rocketed to an average of 400,000-450,000 players during peak hours — and that's not even taking its console player base into account.
The success has been incredible to see, though this past week, it's led to some significant problems with Helldivers 2's server capacity that've often left many players waiting for hours in a queue. Arrowhead has been working 24/7 to expand the game's network for several days now, and ahead of the upcoming weekend, it's deployed an update that raises the server cap to 700,000.
The patch notes exclaim quite joyously that "we have raised the server cap!" (a glitch causing players to get stuck in cutscenes was fixed too), though Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt added some further context in a post on X (Twitter): "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."
The question on the mind of every Helldiver eager to fight for Super Earth this weekend is "will this be enough?", but ultimately, there's no way to know until we see how things go later this evening during primetime. Pilestedt expects for there to still be a queue — you can use this trick to skip the queue, by the way — but hopefully, the larger concurrent user cap will help to ensure that wait times are short.
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It's also possible that this extra supply of server space will fail to meet demand, though. Helldivers 2 has been at the apex of Steam's Top Sellers chart ever since it became available to buy, and its player base has continued to grow quickly with each passing day. Surprisingly, it even broke a few of its concurrent player records in the middle of workdays this week as a result, so it wouldn't surprise me if we saw 500,000-600,000 fans trying to hot drop into the Galactic War this weekend.
The good news is that Helldivers 2 AFK queue dodgers are no longer a problem, which should help alleviate server strain compared to how things were last weekend. Players would previously sit idle on their ship to keep themselves logged in and hog space that could be used by active fans trying to actually play the game, but this is no longer possible thanks to the introduction of an AFK kick that gives idle players the boot after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Aside from beefing up the game's server capacity and resolving the aforementioned issue with freezing during cinematics, Helldivers 2's new patch doesn't include any other fixes or improvements. However, the patch notes do have a "Known Issues" section where various bugs the developers are working to take care of are being tracked. Make sure you check the section below for an overview of those.
If you're new to Helldivers 2 and jumping in this weekend, don't miss these 7 tips and tricks I wish I knew before I got sent to the galactic front lines, as they'll help you get started on the right foot. Not sure which gear you should take into the fray? I've also put together a guide to the best Helldivers 2 weapons you should consider using in your loadouts.
Helldivers 2 Update 1.000.12: Patch notes
Here are the patch notes for Helldivers 2's new 1.000.12 update, taken directly from Arrowhead's official news post on Steam.
Fixes
- We have raised the server cap!
- Fixed issue where some players would get stuck in cinematics for an extended period of time.
Known Issues
These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.
- No text is present for the Requisitions and Social Menu on the Player HUD
- PS5 players may encounter error code 10003001 on the login screen.
- Login rate limiting when many are logging in at the same time.
- Players can become disconnected during play.
- Rewards and other progress may be delayed or not attributed.
- Various UI issues may appear when the game interacts with servers.
- Pick-up of certain objects in-game may cause characters to freeze in place for an extended period of time.
- Some games would not be joinable by others for a short period of time during heavy load.
- Other unknown behaviors may occur.
- Japanese VO is missing from intro cutscene and Ship TV.
- Armor values for light/medium/heavy armor do not currently function as intended.
Helldivers 2 is available now for $39.99 on both PS5 and PC, and so far, it's one of the best PC games of the year. Notably, the game also supports cross-platform play between PS5 and PC.
