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Steam review bomb

Helldivers 2 review bomb

On May 3, 2024 Sony said PC players would have to link a PlayStation Network account, which does not exist in many countries. Steam reviews turned 95 to 98 percent negative over that weekend, and Sony dropped the plan on May 6. Read as OneStar reads it, the May 3, 2024 wave was a review bomb: a wave about one event, not the build. The counts below are Steam's own.

The wave, counted

Helldivers 2 against its own median

The card shows the week or month that held the event as Steam counts it, against the game's median week or month, and whether it clears the rule OneStar uses: at least 20 reviews and more than 5 times the median.

Helldivers 2

Review bomb

On May 3, 2024 Sony said PC players would have to link a PlayStation Network account, which does not exist in many countries. Steam reviews turned 95 to 98 percent negative over that weekend, and Sony dropped the plan on May 6.

343,328reviews in May 2024, against a median month of 8,156
67%thumbs down that month, after 12% the month before
42xthe median month: flagged by the 5x rule

HELLDIVERS™ 2: 1,182,456 reviews in all, 26% thumbs down, Mostly Positive on Steam, counted by Steam on 2026-11-05.

Sources: Dark Horizons, May 2024, TweakTown, May 6, 2024

How to read it

Three questions, in order

  1. How far above the median was it? A real wave is several times the usual volume, not a loud day. The ratio on the card is that number.
  2. What did the reviews name? An account, a credit or a price in another region is about something outside the game. Crashes, a nerf or a missing mode are about the build. A OneStar report answers this for the reviews it reads in the window, with the reviews behind each share.
  3. Did the thumbs down come back down? A bomb ends with its cause. A problem ends with the patch. The next week or month on Steam's history tells you which happened.

The method and the other six cases are on How to tell a review bomb from a real problem. For a patch instead of a wave, see What a patch did to your reviews.

Cite this page: link https://onestar.sh/guides/review-bombs/helldivers-2 and name OneStar and the date you read it. The counts are Steam's own review totals per week or month. Shares in OneStar reports are of all judged reviewers unless the report says otherwise.

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FAQ

Questions, answered plainly

Run the same read on any game with the Steam review analyzer.

Why was Helldivers 2 review bombed?

Sony announced on May 3, 2024 that PC players would need a PlayStation Network account, which is unavailable in many countries where the game had been sold. Players answered with tens of thousands of thumbs down in a weekend, and Sony withdrew the requirement on May 6.

Was it about the game itself?

Mostly no. The wave was about the account requirement, which is why it is the textbook case of a review bomb: a volume spike tied to one announcement, with complaints that name the announcement rather than the build.

Did the reviews recover?

The share of thumbs down fell back once the plan was dropped. The history on this page shows the month against the game's typical month, so you can read the size of the wave and what came after.

Run the same read on your own game.

OneStar reads a game's Steam reviews, flags the days that stand out and names the complaint that led each one. Run a report free: 3 report runs a month of up to 500 reviews each and 1,500 reviews a month in all. No card needed.

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