Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced that it expects to have shipped a total of 77 million PS5 units by the end Fiscal Year 2024, and that sales of Arrowhead Studios’ Helldivers 2 have surpassed 12 million copies, beating God of War Ragnarok’s record.
During its earnings call (via) meeting for Fiscal Year 2023, Sony Group announced that it expects to ship 18 million PS5 units by the end of Fiscal Year 2024, bringing the total number of shipped consoles to 77 million units. It was also revealed that Helldivers 2 has sold over 12 million copies as of May 5, 2024, and that it has beaten the sales record previously held by God of War Ragnarok.
The figure of 12 million units includes sales across both the PS5 and PC versions of Helldivers 2. Releasing the game day and date on PC has been a major contributing factor in the game’s success. That said, the online third-person shooter hasn’t been without its issue. Helldivers 2 launched with connectivity issues, as the developer wasn’t prepared for the kind of online activity and player count that it achieved.
More recently, Steam users have taken issue with the added requirement of creating a PlayStation Network account in order to continue playing the game. However, PlayStation turned back on this initiative amidst backlash from the community, as PSN is legally not available in nearly 200 countries. This has resulted in the company del-listing Helldivers 2 in the aforementioned regions, creating further issues with the player base.
Recently, Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Studios had expressed that the development team wants the game to be available worldwide on Steam, but there are restrictions in place from PlayStation, not Valve, that prevent it from happening. The studio’s CEO Johan Pilestedt explained that the developer had no idea about the recent regional restriction that had been applied to the Steam version. He mentioned that most developers were on a bank holiday, and that they found out later through the community. A similar statement was made by a Steam support representative when a user contacted them for a refund of their copy of Helldivers 2.
