Helldivers 2 maximum player cap has been increased, but Arrowhead still expects queues

For those of us planning to spend the weekend spreading (managed) democracy in Helldivers 2, there's a looming threat the game's buckling servers won't allow it. Earlier this week, Arrowhead Studios capped the CCU (concurrent users) at 450,000 in the name of stability, which basically means that if that cap is reached—and it almost always is —you'll need to wait in queue.

There's a silver lining: Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt has confirmed on X that as of now, the max CCU cap has been raised from 450,000 to 700,000. "Unfortunately, we expect the CCU to reach that level," Pilestedt added, though "we believe that the wait times will be much more bearable."

In an earlier post, Pilestedt elaborated. "We might still hit the limit in the future but for now we are above what we have been able to support. We are actively Monitoring the situation."

To say Arrowhead is having a week is a big understatement; no one expected Helldivers 2 to attract the player numbers it has so far, not least Arrowhead Games itself. Pilestedt said earlier this week that "if you have no cash, get it later", adding that "if you spent your last $ and got stuck in server queues I'd be [heartbroken]." Things will hopefully improve soon, however, because Sony engineers have been recruited to help out.

Helldivers 2 received a welcome patch earlier today adding an AFK kick timer (sticking around in sought after servers AFK is decidedly undemocratic) as well as a bunch of other fixes. The details on Patch 1.000.11 are here.