Highlights

  • Palworld and Helldivers 2 surprised everyone with their instant success.
  • Both games face the challenge of keeping up with increasing demand, having to add content either through early access or a live-service model.
  • The future success of Palworld and Helldivers 2 hinges on regular content updates.

2024 has already produced a wealth of surprisingly great games, most of which have seemingly come out of nowhere. While the likes of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and Tekken 8 both belong to huge franchises, their extremely high level of quality was still pleasantly surprising for many, but the real shocks have been games like Helldivers 2 and Palworld, two titles that had some attention before launch, but quickly ballooned to unforeseen heights upon their release.

Affectionately referred to as "Pokemon with guns" since its debut trailers, Palworld became 2024's first major hit, breaking records across both Steam and Xbox. Then, just a few weeks later, Helldivers 2 launched, managing to climb the same charts just as fast. As it stands right now, Palworld and Helldivers 2 are still some of the biggest games of 2024, but despite all their success, they find themselves in the same unsteady position.

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Helldivers 2 and Palworld Are in the Same Shaky Content-Drop Boat

Helldivers 2 and Palworld Were Overnight Successes

Though the games themselves have very little in common in terms of mechanics, tone, or narrative, Helldivers 2 and Palworld both share one major aspect, and that's their great, and almost-instant success. Before Palworld launched, it had only really gained the attention of avid Pokemon fans looking for a refreshing new take on the usually family-friendly monster-catching formula. And while Helldivers 2 was a sequel to a fairly popular PS Vita and PS4 game, it certainly wasn't the most anticipated game of 2024.

But somehow, both Palworld and Helldivers 2 have managed to achieve a level of success that their creators likely thought impossible. At the end of January, Palworld reported it had sold 12 million copies, and achieved almost 20 million players across its two platforms, and while Helldivers 2 hasn't quite reached those same monumental heights, it's still managed to sell over 3 million copies and is still consistently one of the most played games on Steam according to sites like Steam Charts and SteamDB.

Helldivers 2 and Palworld Now Need to Keep Up With Increasing Demand

But Helldivers 2 and Palworld don't just get to cash their chips and walk away, however. Both Palworld and Helldivers 2 have chosen to adopt a model whereby content is added to the game, usually for free, on a regular basis. While Helldivers 2's live-service model has been linked with unprecedented successes like Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Apex Legends, it's also been the main cause of countless games' downfall, and now the pressure is on for Helldivers 2, and to a degree Palworld, to remain in the former camp.

Generally speaking, Palworld and Helldivers 2 have both come out of the gate swinging when it comes to the former's early access approach and the latter's live-service model. While a fellow live-service title like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has fumbled its live-service approach, not dropping any new content for around two months and thus losing its playerbase very quickly, Palworld and Helldivers 2 have kept up with the demand for new content, delivering updates that patch bugs, improve performance, and add new features, such as the most recent Helldivers 2 update that's added mechs to the game.

It seems as though both Palworld and Helldivers 2 have what it takes to keep players hooked for the long term, but as the gaming industry has seen countless times over the last few years, that can change on a dime. Just one delayed content update can cause a sudden decline in players, and with early access on Steam or the live-service model, that can be detrimental to the game's longevity. So, while Palworld and Helldivers 2 have already been huge successes, they've still got a long, shaky road ahead of them.