After last year’s home run of incredible videogames, 2024 is looking equally stacked. We’ve already had Helldivers 2, Balatro, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and Manor Lords, with the rest of the year promising to be packed as well. The newly released Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is one of the year’s most anticipated games, yet it looks like despite incredibly strong reviews and positive player sentiment, the game isn’t doing too well on Steam.
As of right now, the Hellblade 2 launch peak on Steam is sitting at 3,982 players on SteamDB. The single-player game has been reviewed well across the board, at 81 on Metacritic, with many highlighting how Senua’s process of healing trauma tells an engaging narrative underpinned by one of the best-looking videogames we’ve ever seen, but the Steam numbers alone aren’t staggering.
Of course, the amount of players on Valve’s platform doesn’t tell the whole story, even if they’re still worth looking at. Hellblade 2 has also launched on Xbox consoles and Game Pass, so it’s perfectly reasonable to assume that not even all PC players are on Steam itself.
Fellow single-player day one Game Pass launch Hi-Fi Rush actually did a bit better than Hellblade 2 on the first day of launch, peaking at 6,132 players on Steam. That game did launch for $30 though, while Hellblade 2 is retailing at $50 – which is bound to have an impact on day one purchases.
While the numbers don’t look great, there’s currently nothing to worry about with Hellblade 2. As people beat it word of mouth starts to spread, and even then not every single-player narrative experience is for everyone.
Our own 9/10 Hellblade 2 review celebrates how the game presents coming to terms with trauma, and how it continues the process of grief from the first game. “If Senua’s Sacrifice was the most realistic portrayal of mental ill health in videogames, then Senua’s Saga is a continuation of the process of healing, acceptance, and growth.”
If you’re diving into Senua’s next quest on any platform we’ve got all the Hellblade 2 face locations and where to find every Hellblade 2 Lorestangir as well.
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