A few months ago, the idea of Sony letting one of its latest success stories land on Xbox would have sounded impossible, yet the release of Helldivers 2 on Xbox Series X|S has turned out to be anything but a mistake. According to Sony, bringing the co-op shooter to Microsoft’s console did not just open the door to new players; it also reignited interest and boosted sales on PS5 and PC.

Not long ago, it was hard to imagine Sony giving the green light for one of its recent hits to appear on Xbox hardware. When Helldivers 2 arrived on Microsoft’s console in August 2025, many feared it might dilute PlayStation’s appeal, but the opposite has happened. The Xbox Series X|S version has attracted a fresh wave of players while at the same time breathing new life into the community on PS5 and PC, where the game has seen renewed attention.

Helldivers 2 on Xbox lifted PS5 and PC as well

During the latest investor call, Sony CFO Lin Tao stated that the launch of Helldivers 2 on Xbox Series X|S “is performing extremely well”, pointing to a significant year-over-year increase in sales and higher engagement across every platform. This fits neatly with Sony’s strategy of leaning harder into games as a service, which accounted for around 40 percent of first-party software revenue in the last fiscal quarter.

Even though Sony has not shared official sales numbers, an analysis by Alinea suggests that the Xbox version of Helldivers 2 nearly hit one million copies sold in its first six days, potentially outpacing the launch cadence the game enjoyed on PlayStation the previous year. For several weeks, Helldivers 2 consistently showed up among the best selling and most-played games on the Xbox Store, a performance that may also have been boosted by its collaboration with Halo. In any case, the shooter has become a strong argument inside Sony that staying invested in the games as a service market still makes sense.

At the same time, the arrival of Helldivers 2 on Xbox ended up being very good news for PlayStation. As Sony has indicated via reporting from Insider Gaming, the Xbox launch helped drive additional sales of the shooter on PS5 and PC. That success is all the more striking given that the Japanese company has had more stumbles than wins in the live service space so far, including the acquisition of Bungie, whose performance has fallen short of expectations. Looking ahead, it seems likely that PlayStation will decide on a case-by-case basis whether a particular service game should launch on Xbox at the same time as PS5 or arrive months later, depending on how much potential they see in each title.

Source: 3djuegos