• Multi-Category Dominance: Helldivers 2 featured in 3 out of 4 major categories at the 2025 Xbox Excellence Awards.
  • Engagement King: Ranked top for average hours per-player within the first six weeks of release.
  • Sales Success: Confirmed as one of the best-selling titles on the Xbox and Microsoft stores for 2025.
  • The Sony Push: Internal data confirms PlayStation was the primary driving force behind the port.

The Xbox Metric Invasion

If anyone still thinks Sony is keeping its biggest hits locked in a vault, the 2025 Xbox Excellence Awards just served as a massive wake-up call. We’ve been tracking the Helldivers 2 port since it landed on Series X|S, and the data confirms what we suspected: the game is an absolute juggernaut on "enemy" turf. Sony and its PlayStation division aren't just playing nice; they’re making a calculated business play that is paying off in dividends.

Across the board, Microsoft’s internal metrics show that Helldivers 2 is killing it. This isn't just a minor success—it’s a total takeover of the platform's most prestigious categories. We're talking top-tier performance in Player Engagement, Daily Active Users (DAU), and raw Units Sold.

Engagement and Sales Power

The 2025 Xbox Excellence Awards highlighted Helldivers 2 in three critical areas that prove the game has massive staying power. First, the Player Engagement metric shows that users are sinking more average hours into this title within their first six weeks than almost anything else on the platform. When players drop in, they aren't leaving.

Second, the Daily Active Users category confirms that major updates and the base game itself achieved the highest single-day active user counts of the year. Finally, the Units Sold metric puts the debate to rest: Helldivers 2 is officially one of the platform’s best-selling titles of 2025. While Microsoft didn't provide a specific ranked list, being grouped with the top-selling content across the Xbox and Microsoft stores is a huge win for a former console exclusive.

The Strategy: PlayStation’s Calculated Move

The most shocking revelation isn't the sales figures—it's who pulled the trigger. According to the data, the decision to bring the fight for managed democracy to Xbox wasn't a Microsoft-led acquisition or a desperate plea. As the report states, "It was all PlayStation." Sony was the driving force behind this port, recognizing that the revenue potential on Series X|S was too high to ignore.

Our take? This is a masterclass in modern publishing. Sony effectively used Xbox hardware to subsidize their live-service growth. They realized that more boots on the ground means more microtransactions and a longer tail for the game's lifecycle.

The Only Miss: Store Ratings

It’s not a perfect five-star sweep, though. The only category where Helldivers 2 didn't land in the "best of" circle was the Store Rating. Currently, the port sits at a four-star rating after roughly 1,200 user scores. It's a solid showing, but it suggests that while the game is selling and being played at record rates, there might be some minor friction with the Xbox-specific community or technical port nuances that kept it from that top-tier 5-star status.

Regardless of the rating, the financial and engagement reality is clear: the port was a game-changer for Sony’s bottom line.