After having dipped to less than 10,000 concurrent players, Helldivers 2 really needed the Escalation of Freedom update to be met positively by the community. Thankfully, it didn’t disappoint, despite some controversy surrounding nerfs , players seem to be largely enjoying the update and it looks like Helldivers 2 could bounce back in the long term. With the Freedom’s Flame Warbond right around the corner too, Arrowhead Game Studios has the potential to ride this wave for the next few weeks if they play their cards right.
According to Steamdb , Helldivers 2 peaked at 62,819 players on Steam following the release of the Escalation of Freedom update. This marks the highest concurrent player count that the game has seen since June 17th, which was just days after the 01.000.
400 update was released that added supply lines to the Galactic War map to make Major Orders easier to navigate and the player count was slowly declining back to regular levels. The player count did slightly dip today, peaking at 60,088, but it will be interesting to see how the player count is over the next few days as the Freedom’s Flame Warbond is released. There has been some controversy surrounding the Escalation of Freedom update due to fire being nerfed, which has resulted in weapons such as the Flamethrower and Breaker Incendiary Shotgun not being as viable as they once were.
This decision didn’t make much sense considering the next Warbond is fire-themed, so I’m sure all eyes will be on the Warbond to see whether it lives up to expectations after players have spent months requesting fire-resistant armor. Despite the nerfs, there are still plenty of options to use when battling the Automatons and Terminids, I often use the Battle Rifle for Automatons and Pummeler SMG for the Terminids and it works out well for me. If you need help reoptimizing your loadout if you want to make a change following the Escalation of Freedom update , I highly recommend checking out our Helldivers 2 best weapons guide and best armor guide .
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