2025 has been a tremendous year for those looking for exciting new games to play, but as it turns out, one of the year’s biggest and most successful titles is actually one from 2024 that’s remained an incredibly popular multiplayer experience: Helldivers 2.
Indeed, Arrowhead Game Studios’ beloved co-op shooter has maintained consistent and widespread player engagement since its release in February 2024, and last month, it even surged to an extremely impressive fourth place position in August’s industry-wide gaming revenue chart according to analytics firm Newzoo (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz). The month prior, it held the 37th spot in the rankings.
That’s a massive leap forward of 33 positions for the game, and undoubtedly, it came as a result of “a substantial uplift” from Helldivers 2’s explosive launch on Xbox that was so big it briefly crashed the servers. The shooter — a PlayStation-published PC and PS5 exclusive up until August 26 — was one of the most sorely desired games by Xbox Series X|S fans, so when a port actually came, players on Microsoft’s consoles were ecstatic.
There was so much excitement, in fact, that as Alinea Analytics reported at the start of September, nearly 1 million copies of Helldivers 2 were sold on Xbox six days after its arrival on the platform. That’s an even better performance than the game enjoyed at launch on PS5 last year, with 633K copies sold on PlayStation six days post-launch last February.
Some other big drivers of Helldivers 2’s recent financial success include the fantastic $15 Halo-themed ODST crossover that brought several beautifully recreated Halo 3: ODST weapons and armor sets into Arrowhead’s co-op game, and also the major Into the Unjust update that fleshed out the Terminid bugs with a new sub-faction and some terrifying boss units like the Hive Lord.
August’s other big winner was Electronic Arts and DICE’s upcoming Battlefield 6, the latest entry in their legendary large-scale multiplayer FPS franchise and one that’s poised to be one of 2025’s standout gaming experiences. Specifically, the Battlefield 6 beta climbed all the way to third place in August’s monthly active users chart, even beating big names like Roblox, Minecraft, and Grand Theft Auto V.
It’s a very impressive showing for a game that was only available for eight days across two weekends, though after seeing its concurrent player counts while the playtests were active, I can’t say I’m surprised. On Steam alone, the Battlefield 6 Open Beta pulled in over 500K players, cruising past the record held by Call of Duty and making it the most-played Battlefield on PC.
Newzoo notes that the beta’s performance is “an encouraging signal ahead of [Battlefield 6’s] October 10 full release” that it will be very popular. Indeed, the game has been received very well thus far, with fans giving its classic class-driven Battlefield gameplay, impressive destruction systems, and grounded military aesthetic high praise.
Newzoo notes that the beta’s performance is “an encouraging signal ahead of [Battlefield 6’s] October 10 full release” that it will be very popular.
Ahead of its arrival next month, the developers have announced multiple changes being made in response to fan feedback from the beta, all of which are currently being tested in closed Battlefield Labs playtests alongside a battle royale mode and larger, vehicle-focused maps than the ones that were available in August. Notably, sign-ups for Battlefield Labs have resumed again, so you can register for a chance to participate if you’d like.
Interest in Battlefield 6 has also led to a resurgence for its controversial predecessor Battlefield 2042, too. Despite widespread dislike for its Specialist characters and oversized 128-player matches, fans have flocked to the game to play its new Iwo Jima map and earn special Battlefield 6 rewards. Reportedly, it’s hit its peak player engagement recently, even beating its launch month in 2021.
Ultimately, it’s fantastic to see both Helldivers 2 and Battlefield 6 performing this well, as the former stands tall as one of the most impressive and enjoyable dynamic co-op experiences in gaming and the latter represents a long-awaited comeback for a series that’s been struggling to stay relevant since 2018’s Battlefield V.
There’s simply nothing that’s quite like Helldivers 2 out there, and it’s great that it’s finally come to Xbox so that everyone can revel in the bombastic chaos of its sandbox and teamwork-driven action gameplay. Battlefield 6, meanwhile, stands in defiance of modern FPS trends like zippy advanced movement or over-the-top cartoonish cosmetics, and is quite a breath of fresh air as a result.
Both Helldivers 2 and Battlefield 6 are available to purchase across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 for $39.99 or $69.99, respectively, though you can pick up the PC version of the former for just $34.39 at Loaded (formerly CDKeys), and the Xbox one for $37.79 at Loaded thanks to some cool discounts.
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