12MM copies sold... current player counts around 100M to 23M... so where is everybody?

[Dwolite]

According to Arrowhead, there have been 12,000,000 copies of Helldivers 2 sold to date.

Yet at peak, there were only 500,000 players playing... or 4.17% of buyers playing.

Currently, player count is fluctuating between around 23,000 and 100,000... or 0.19% to 0.83% of buyers playing.

My question is... where is everybody? Why did millions of people buy the game and never play it? Do people just have too much money?

UPDATE: Ok, so my math is clearly wrong. I was assuming the "player counts" were daily totals... which is incorrect. So, I'm not sure what the aggregate player count is vs. total sales, but it isn't as bad as my math suggested. Sorry about that!

[VelxraTV]

Half the world was blocked. So half the world is missing in the pop.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Originally posted by dwolite:

12MM copies sold... current player counts around 100M to 23M... so where is everybody?

Did you miss the part where a good portion of those sales quit (refund) or can't connect anymore due to the PSN shenanigans?

Number of sales mean squat on any given game and it has always been so since forever. It is only good for the ego of the publisher, a stat they can wave around to pretend their game are good or not. In reality a lot of games which have low sales are very good and lots of games which has high sales very bad. It mean nothing.

Go with player numbers instead if you want at least a somewhat useful metric.

[Dwolite]

I am fully aware of the PSN linking issue and the blocking (I am one of those boycotting the game until this is resolved)... but that does not explain the difference between the sales numbers and player counts. It can't explain those numbers - especially at peak when only 500,000 players were playing when supposedly millions upon millions of people bought the game (very unlikely the player count was 12,000,000 at peak... so my math is a bit off... but it was still likely a good portion of that 12,000,000 due to pre-orders and initial excitement early on). But anyway, where did all those people go? Why did they never play?

Maybe I'm just thinking about it wrong... not everyone plays the game at the same time of day... could the difference be because of that?

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Even with normal games, if you look at the achievement metrics you'll find out that at least 20% of the "sales" never even fired off the game long enough to get the most basic achievement.

Again, sales mean absolutely nothing as a metric. It is a number that is tossed around as bragging rights more than anything else.

[Corey Greyfox]

100k doesn't mean it's the same 100k people playing constantly.

[Khanwolf]

Originally posted by dwolite:

I am fully aware of the PSN linking issue and the blocking (I am one of those boycotting the game until this is resolved)... but that does not explain the difference between the sales numbers and player counts. It can't explain those numbers - especially at peak when only 500,000 players were playing when supposedly millions upon millions of people bought the game

The Steamcharts are a representation of Players online at THE SAME TIME, not Playercount per day. This means the Logins per day are higher than the Users online at the same time.

This is why you dont see 7 million there on day one or something.

[Dwolite]

Eagle_of_Fire - then why did people buy the game at all? Do people really do that - buy a game and not play it? Mind you, I have re-purchased older games and still not played them (for instance, I purchased the Bioshock games on PC and I have only completed maybe 10% of the first game... but that was done only after I bought and beat them all on Xbox back in the day), but this is a brand new game. Why buy it and not play it? I guess I'm old school. I don't just buy something and not use it.

[Dwolite]

Khanwolf - ok, so that does make sense. So, I'm wrong to compare total sales to current player counts then?

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Originally posted by dwolite:

Eagle_of_Fire - then why did people buy the game at all? Do people really do that - buy a game and not play it? Mind you, I have re-purchased older games and still not played them (for instance, I purchased the Bioshock games on PC and I have only completed maybe 10% of the first game... but that was done only after I bought and beat them all on Xbox back in the day), but this is a brand new game. Why buy it and not play it? I guess I'm old school. I don't just buy something and not use it.

No clue. Don't ask me, I don't have an answer for that kind of question.

There is a multitude of things in life that I find as stupid as this question, and yet here we are.

[BananaGlass 🍌]

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

Even with normal games, if you look at the achievement metrics you'll find out that at least 20% of the "sales" never even fired off the game long enough to get the most basic achievement.

Again, sales mean absolutely nothing as a metric. It is a number that is tossed around as bragging rights more than anything else.

Absolutely nothing? Do you not understand how currency works?

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Originally posted by BananaGlass 🍌:

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

Even with normal games, if you look at the achievement metrics you'll find out that at least 20% of the "sales" never even fired off the game long enough to get the most basic achievement.

Again, sales mean absolutely nothing as a metric. It is a number that is tossed around as bragging rights more than anything else.

Absolutely nothing? Do you not understand how currency works?

Please learn to read.

[0rga]

A very rough estimation here:
Assuming a player session of 2hrs and an average population of 50k players you have 600,000 active players.
12,000,000 copy sold to the retailers probably, not physical individuals.

[Khanwolf]

Originally posted by dwolite:

Khanwolf - ok, so that does make sense. So, I'm wrong to compare total sales to current player counts then?

yes, i am sorry. you did simply read the charts wrong. Also skip that Eagle of Fire Answer, the Sales Numbers INCLUDE Retailers and (virtual) Stores. This is why a game ALWAYS has more sold copies on release than Players, the Copies still have to be sold!

[BananaGlass 🍌]

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

Originally posted by BananaGlass 🍌:

Absolutely nothing? Do you not understand how currency works?

Please learn to read.

You said "sales mean absolutely nothing as a metric."
Sales are a metric for upfront profit.
Please learn how to read.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Originally posted by Khanwolf:

Originally posted by dwolite:

Khanwolf - ok, so that does make sense. So, I'm wrong to compare total sales to current player counts then?

yes, i am sorry. you did simply read the charts wrong. Also skip that Eagle of Fire Answer, the Sales Numbers INCLUDE Retailers and (virtual) Stores. This is why a game ALWAYS has more sold copies on release than Players, the Copies still have to be sold!

You're funny. You are implying here that virtual copies are somewhat calculated like physical copies. Like that make any sense.