Helldivers: 2 Player Decline Alert 

Currently - Friday night at 8pm CST - the player count seems way lower than the last time I played. I really hope everyone is just waiting for more content as there is a solid base here for a long running game. The current approach just isn't working.

I think alot of the FOMO has worn off that people had when the game first came out. It grabbed everyones attention and was being streamed every where, now everyone has unlocked everything and is running through level 9's with a competent team. As you said the best part of this game is playing with your buddies, if you don't have that, well then once everything is unlocked why stick around?

people in foreign countries become disillusioned after the PSN incident, and the game STILL being unavailable for purchase demotivates them further plus playerbases experience a natural decline especially after about 90 after launch.

if they added land vehicles that aren't mechs already then the game would've been 20x better (and yes I do mean Warthog inspired vehicles or something like those- because that would be sick.)

Because it's the case for all games except PvP games that went long enough through their game cycle.

The PSN debacle took off at least 100,000 players when the game was at its peak; something that still hasn't and likely won't be fixed at this point. Then there was a series of godawful nerfs that seriously hampered the enjoyment of most of the weapons people really used. Then there was the botched DLC, Polar Patriots, which was so bad the CEO had to step down to help fix the situation. Then recently with Meridia people kept having bugs spawn under the drill, breaking it instantly. It really feels like this game was made by a bunch of people who don't even play their own game, published by a company who really doesn't give a singular shit about its players either.