Helldivers 2 is Giving Starship Troopers a Big Boost

The popularity of Helldivers 2 appears to be drumming up interest in the film Starship Troopers, the '90s sci-fi film about soldiers taking on giant bugs in space. Arrowhead Game Studios' new shooter has quickly become a major hit since its launch earlier this month, drawing in fans and rasing the bar for co-op combat. Despite seeing server issues and bugs at release, Helldivers 2 has gamers queuing up to take on aliens and robots in intense combat across deadly worlds.

The success of the new title is evident from the passion it's already generating among fans and the sheer number of players it's managed to attract in such a short time. Already, Helldivers 2 has been outperforming Call of Duty and Fortnite on PSN to become the top game played on the network. Now, it seems that success is also translating to renewed interest in a different, but quite similar, property.

Since the launch of Helldivers 2, the love of the movie Starship Troopers has jumped way up and many are attributing it to the influence of the new game. On Twitter this week, user FF Addict uploaded data from Television Stats showing that the film recently jumped from 109 to 45 in terms of popularity online. This is a remarkable change in such a short time, and even Arrowhead Game Studios head Johan Pilestedt had to comment, replying «this is incredible!»

It's not surprising that fans would draw parallels between these two properties and that success for one would translate to greater interest in the other. Even before its release, observers were noting that Helldivers 2 looks perfect for fans of Starship Troopers. Both feature military action against giant insects (and robots in the case of Helldivers 2), focus on squads of tough soldiers, and feature satirical senses of humor that poke fun at the very genre they emulate.

The movie Starship Troopers premiered in 1997 and, while it saw little success in theaters, it would go on to become a cult classic. Indeed, many argue that Starship Troopers is still a