PlayStation's 'Helldivers 2' lands the top spot on the Xbox Store — could more be on the way?

PlayStation and Xbox are cosying up more than ever, and this latest sales milestone suggests the love-in may go even deeper.

Over the past couple of years, Xbox has been quite controversially putting its flagship titles onto PlayStation consoles. Many (myself included) thought this could sound the Xbox hardware ecosystem's death knell — why buy an Xbox console if it doesn't have exclusive games? Is Microsoft intentionally winding down the Xbox hardware ecosystem?

Fast forward two years, and it seems those fears were largely unfounded (at least for now). Xbox reported to shareholders that it has more console players than ever, and while hardware sales have declined from the launch year peak, Xbox Cloud Gaming has buoyed the footprint of Microsoft's console-based game development ecosystem. Microsoft has expanded its gaming operation horizontally across to mobile via acquisitions, and is working hard to improve the Xbox PC experience on Windows as well.

Arch rival PlayStation has sat up and noticed, too. Increasingly, it seems gamers are content to simply stay where they are and identify with service games more and more, as the audience for cinematic single player titles matures and remains largely static. To that end, PlayStation began following Xbox on putting its games onto Steam, and now, has even begun putting its games onto Xbox directly.

Helldivers 2 was the first PlayStation Publishing LLC title to hit Xbox, and its performance will likely inform Sony on how to proceed. Indeed, early signs for Helldivers 2 on Xbox are looking incredibly promising.

Helldivers 2 hits the #1 spot on Xbox's sales charts

Helldivers 2 is a co-op shooter with a Starship Troopers vibe. Players drop into chaotic warzones in squads of four, and complete dynamic objectives against a variety of galactic threats. The game's clever in-universe story delivery feels like a giant online roleplaying experiment too, with in-game events evolving over time across a dynamic galactic war map.

Helldivers 2 shares some clear DNA with the likes of Halo, particularly ODST, whose sci-fi alien-hunting vibes at least superficially intersect with Helldivers. Microsoft and PlayStation cleverly capitalized on this with a Halo-inspired DLC pack for the game, to celebrate the partnership. But whether or not Xbox fans will get more games like this remains wholly up in the air.

Naturally, if Helldivers 2 had been a total flop on Xbox, it would've been fair to assume PlayStation wouldn't move ahead with publishing more. But it certainly seems like Helldivers 2 has been a lucrative outing on Xbox so far.

The Xbox dashboard and website ranks the "Top Free" and "Top Paid" games on the console platform, and as shared by Klobrille on Twitter, Helldivers 2 landed the coveted United States #1 spot today, beating out the likes of NBA 2K26, Madden, Black Myth Wukong, and Minecraft. Helldivers 2 and its Super Citizen Edition both have listings high on the charts, and in various other Xbox territories, including the United Kingdom.

It was always likely that Helldivers 2 would over-index, beating average Xbox attach rates potentially. Xbox has a long storied tradition of delivering shooters, from Halo to Gears of War, and the Halo-adjacency in general is hard to overlook.

Microsoft has of course put Gears of War onto PlayStation as well this summer, as well as various other titles including Indiana Jones and Forza Horizon. The sales boom of Xbox titles on PlayStation helped Microsoft Gaming achieve significant growth last quarter, and Sony has to be considering how it can capitalize in a similar way.

Sony would make $$$$$$ porting older games to Xbox, without harming PlayStation

PlayStation's back catalog has some of the greatest games of the past two generations, but it's pretty clear that they've sold all they could possibly sell on existing platforms like PC and PlayStation. With gamers habitually more comfortable than ever to simply stay where they are, Sony is undoubtedly exploring ways it could extract value out of the passionate (and stubborn) Xbox console base. It might be smaller overall than Nintendo, Steam, and PlayStation, but Xbox users are heavily engaged — and clearly eager to buy a banger or two.

Shooter-oriented games like Days Gone, Returnal, or The Last Of Us would undoubtedly sell like hotcakes on Xbox if Helldivers 2 is any indication. The Last Of Us has also expanded into a hit TV show in recent years, giving it some extra buoyancy potentially for Xbox sales. Obviously, Spider-Man and God of War would also do fantastically well on Xbox, but it wouldn't be a surprise to see Sony hang on to some of its biggest franchises as differentiators for its platform.

But honestly, would moving Spider-Man or God of War even hurt PlayStation at this point? With the vast majority of playtime hours being devoured by titles like Fortnite and Roblox, the addressable audience for these types of cinematic experiences seems to be diminished by and large. With competition for free time more aggressive than ever, cutting through the noise with the biggest multi-platform launchpad possible seems to give the best chances for success.

Sony has been signalling to investors for some time that it wants to move away from PlayStation hardware centricity. Microsoft is undoubtedly gearing up to put Halo itself onto PlayStation in the near future. Is PlayStation just hurting itself by continuing to hold back?

The next Xbox is rumored to support third-party stores like Steam anyway, perhaps PlayStation should just cut out the middle man ... and cut a better deal with Xbox directly.