Helldivers 2’s Omens of Tyranny update, which was shadow-dropped during The Game Awards 2024, has been a major boon for the game’s short-term success. This update checked several items off players' wishlists, namely the introduction of the Illuminate enemy faction, alongside a new premium Warbond, proper melee weapons, new planet environments, a vehicle stratagem, and shortly after, the first-ever officialHelldivers 2crossover. So, naturally, releasing all this new content throughoutHelldivers 2’s Omens of Tyranny updateled to an immediate growth in the game’s player counts at a time when it was nearing an all-time low.
However, despite the Omens of Tyranny update leading to immediate short-term growth in the game’s player count, in hindsight, it may have been better forHelldivers 2’s long-term success to drip-feed this update, gradually releasing it in parts over time. UnlessHelldivers 2has plans to release another new enemy faction, managing to unite the player base the same way that the Omens of Tyranny update did will likely be hard to repeat, suggesting a troubling future for the live-service game.
Helldivers 2 May Have Jumped the Gun on Introducing the Illuminate Faction
Helldivers 2 still has yet to surpass the peak player numbers the game saw at launch, though according toSteam Charts,Helldivers 2’s Omens of Tyranny update still managed to pull the game out of one of its biggest low points so far. Before this update,Helldivers 2’s peak player count on Steam in November 2024 was 56,787. Then, after the Omens of Tyranny update,Helldivers 2’s peak player count throughout December reached 148,524. Considering that this update delivered some of, if not the most highly-requested features among the game’s player base, it’s no surprise that it managed to rally players’ support at a time of need.
These statistics don’t reflect the game’s player counts on PlayStation 5, thoughHelldivers 2approaching record-low player numbers on Steam is still a troubling sign for the game’s future, especially considering the recentreports of PlayStation canceling live-service gamesfollowingConcord’s failure.
Helldivers 2’s Omens of Tyranny Update Sets an Impossibly High Bar for Future Updates
While this growth following the success ofHelldivers 2’s Omens of Tyranny update was much needed, the game still has a long way to go before it ever comes close to reaching a new all-time high player count. Although the Illuminate faction has plenty of room to grow via new enemy units andnew mission types inHelldivers 2, unless there are plans to introduce a fourth enemy faction,Helldivers 2may have played its biggest trump card too early in the game’s lifecycle, leaving future updates with a seemingly impossible standard to live up to.
Helldivers 2 Playing the Long Game Is Arguably for the Best
In hindsight, it may have been better to gradually release some of the features introduced in this update, instead of shadow-dropping them all at once. Given the lack of marketing and anticipation, the release ofthe Illuminate faction inHelldivers 2was arguably anticlimactic, whereas incorporating the Illuminate faction’s return and other parts of the Omens of Tyranny update into a series ofHelldivers 2’s Major Order campaigns could have helped to build more hype for this debut.
Despite speculation and fan theories surrounding the return of the Illuminate faction growing,Helldivers 2arguably still had plenty of room to explore newGalactic War events and Major Order campaignsfocusing on the Automatons and Terminids without the need to introduce the Illuminate faction just yet. Ultimately,Helldivers 2may need to introduce more enemy factions, and/or pace future content updates more carefully. Otherwise, the game may have trouble delivering fresh updates that retain players on a long-term basis.
Helldivers 2
WHERE TO PLAY
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