Helldivers 2 UK boxed sales grow again week-on-week

Helldivers 2 continues to do well here in the UK, with boxed sales growing 20 percent in its third week on the market thanks to the game's positive reception.

As noted by Chris Dring from Eurogamer's sister site GamesIndustry.biz, this marks the second week in a row in which the game has seen a comparative sales increase - an unusual occurrence.

Helldivers 2 is currently sat at number four in the UK's physical chart, behind Mario vs Donkey Kong, Hogwarts Legacy and EA Sports FC 24. Ubisoft's beleaguered pirate game Skull and Bones has tumbled down to sixteenth place, meanwhile.

While Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead is yet to share any exact figures for overall sales, the suggestion is that it has shifted around 3m copies worldwide since launch.

Replying to a user on social media, who guessed the third-person shooter had sold almost that, Helldivers 2 game director Johan Pilestedt shared two leading emojis: a hand pointing up towards the original comment, and a pair of open eyes.

As you may have surmised, Helldivers 2 has seen some incredible numbers since it was released earlier this month. Soon after launch, it surpassed Steam stalwarts such as Rust, Destiny 2 and even GTA5 for peak-concurrent players. Helldivers 2 became PlayStation's biggest Steam launch ever and currently has an all-time concurrent peak of over 458,000 players.

"With its high-chaos, high-comedy firefights, Helldivers 2 is a riot to play with friends," Emma Kent wrote in Eurogamer's four star review.

"Despite the issues surrounding matchmaking, when Helldivers 2 works, it's a wonderfully slapstick co-op experience. Unexpected and memorable events seem to occur in nearly every battle, and I already have a stock of ludicrous stories from my first week with the game."

Over the weekend, Helldivers 2 raised its concurrent player cap again, this time to 800,000 players. Pilestedt went on to thank the "studio of ~100 devs" for their "amazing achievement".