Helldivers 2 hit two major sales milestones to kick off 2026, as the game sold over 1.6 million units on Xbox Series X/S consoles and over 20 million units across all platforms. The sales figures for Helldivers 2 also confirmed a trend with Xbox's audience, which in turn helped the game reach its current sales point.
The sales figures came just days before Helldivers 2 celebrated two full years of service. Originally releasing in February 2024 on Steam and PS5, Helldivers 2 has been both successful and controversial. Helldivers 2The main sticking points stemmed from the game's technical issues on PC, along with a PlayStation account requirement that has since been removed following player backlash. Heading into 2026, Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Shams Jorjani said so Helldivers 2 has some potentially dangerous maps scheduled to launch throughout the year. However, details of what Helldivers 2 have in mind for their growing player base remain elusive.
Xbox hardware is struggling, but Microsoft's gaming revenue is not
Microsoft's latest earnings show declining Xbox hardware sales but growing gaming revenue driven by Cloud and Game Pass.
Helldivers 2 hits major sales milestones
Following Helldivers 2s successful launch on Xbox systems, sales figures for Arrowhead's hit shooter shared a picture of how the game has fared since then. According to Alinea Analytics, Helldivers 2 sold over 1.6 million units on the Xbox Series X/S in the first five months after launch. The biggest estimated sales peak for Helldivers 2 on Xbox happened during the game's early days on the market, confirming the trend that Xbox players tend to favor shooters and military sci-fi settings. In addition, Helldivers 2 reached over 20 million units sold across all available platforms, with 3.6 million units sold in December 2025 alone. The total sales of Helldivers 2 across all supported platforms has also generated over $700 million in gross revenue for Arrowhead Game Studios since 2024. The report compared the success of Helldivers 2 to other games such as Fire Ring and Baldur's Gate 3calling it a “generational success story.”
Although sales of the Xbox port of Helldivers 2 is impressive in the short time it's been on the market, they paled in comparison to the sales figures of the PS5 and Steam versions. The PS5 version of the Helldivers 2 has sold an estimated 5.6 million units, nearly four times as much as the Xbox port. However, Steam is still the preferred platform for a majority of Helldivers 2 players, as the game has sold over 13.1 million units on Valve's platform. Steam's sales figures are all the more remarkable after Helldivers 2s notorious technical problems on PC are taken into account. As part of its ongoing efforts to improve the game's quality of life and eliminate some lingering issues, the Steam version of Helldivers 2 has a scaled down installation option for players to use. Arrowhead stated that hard drive support was a primary factor behind it Helldivers 2s notoriously large installation size of over 100 GB on PC. With the help of Nixxes Software, Arrowhead was able to shrink it down to around 22GB, which matches the installation size of its console counterparts.
Helldivers 2 looks to build more momentum in 2026
As part of its ongoing efforts to provide players with more quality of life updates, Helldivers 2 launched a patch in late January aimed at helping stealth-oriented players reach their goals. The update brought some fixes to suppressed weapons, thanks to a 50% noise radius reduction and a nerfed detection radius for specific Automaton and Terminid enemies. Additionally, special Commando missions are now available for Helldivers 2 players to check out.
Siege Breakers Premium Warbond will be available in Helldivers 2 starting Tuesday, February 3, giving players new items to spend their credits on. Even if Helldivers 2 has been a financial success for Arrowhead, the game shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Between the upcoming Warbond and Arrowhead's continued support, it remains to be seen what the sales figures will be Helldivers 2 will be in the coming months.
- Released
-
February 8, 2024
- ESRB
-
Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, intense violence, in-game purchases, user interaction
- Developer
-
Arrowhead Game Studios, Nixxes
- Publisher
-
Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation Publishing
