It’s been a solid year for co-op shooters, to say the least. Spearheaded by Helldivers 2’s unexpected boom, it’s now Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2’s turn to make some noise. After an already impressive showing with its early access launch last week, it has just fully opened its doors and achieved an almighty peak Steam player count – one that sees it smash a Warhammer games record.
While Helldivers 2 seemed like a nailed-on certainty to be crowned best co-op game of the year, Space Marine 2 is putting up a hell of a fight to beat it to that crown. Its early access launch was a success, with a peak of 134,000 players, but that’s nothing compared to what it’s just achieved today, September 9, on its full launch.
At the time of writing, the 24-hour peak concurrent player count for Space Marine 2 on Steam is 225,690. That is the highest peak ever achieved by any of the Warhammer games and Warhammer 40k games that came before it, toppling the previous record of 166,754 that was set by Total War: Warhammer 3 in 2022.
There’s every chance that as the week progresses, and more people hear about how fun Space Marine 2 is, this peak player count can be nudged up even higher. Will it get close to the 458,000 peak that Helldivers 2 reached? Almost certainly not. But Space Marine 2 is putting on a much more impressive showing than I, and many others, expected.
As well as achieving a huge peak player count, Space Marine 2’s user reviews have also recovered nicely. Due to issues such as connecting your Epic account to access crossplay and some performance wobbles, it was sitting at a 67% Mixed rating a few days ago. Now, it’s clawed its way up to Very Positive status, with 80% of reviews now being positive ones.
While we had some reservations about it in our Space Marine 2 review, there’s no denying that the core gameplay mechanics are solid – and at the end of the day, the simple fun of brutally blasting bugs with your pals is enough to win anyone over. Of course, there’s PvP as well for anyone who wants to get competitive, but it’s the co-op PvE gameplay that is really resonating right now.
If you’re already knee-deep in bug guts, we recommend checking out our best Space Marine 2 builds guide to turn yourself into the ultimate slayer. To scope out more exciting new co-op games, take a glance at our upcoming PC games guide.
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